Well once again, may God help
us as we continue our meditation in the first epistle of Paul
to the Thessalonians. This evening we'll speak for
a few minutes on the third chapter and verses six to eight. So the
first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, chapter three
and reading verses six to eight. But now, when Timotheus came
from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith
and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always,
desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you. Therefore,
brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and
distress by your faith, for now we live. if ye stand fast in
the Lord.' Well again the Apostle really
reiterates his encouragement by the good news that Timotheus
was able to bring to him of the people that were indeed in Corinth
and how the Lord had blessed them how he continues to be with
them and also those in Thessalonica. Both these places we see that
the Lord had wonderfully blessed the ministry of the Apostle Paul
and of course he preached the gospel and then moved on and
his great concern as we thought upon last week was that they
had not cast aside the great and wonderful truths that they
had heard. And so now he received this good
news and he was so pleased to receive it as Timotheus had come
and brought them good tidings of their faith and charity. Well how important those two
issues are, faith charity or we can say faith and love and
how true it is it's God given faith and God given love and
how we walk by faith and not by sight and so it was encouraging
indeed for him as he preached the gospel to these people that
they had received it and it was good tidings for them and now
is good tidings for the Apostle as they brought these good tidings
of their faith. What a blessing it is to realise
that they had not made shipwreck of their faith, but they've been
blessed with it, and true faith is God-given. And it is a wonderful
favour to have faith. And we only have to read, don't
we, in the 11th chapter of the Hebrews, of all the patriarchs
and godly men recorded there, who were blessed with faith.
And through that gift of God they were able to do great things. We should realize that thankfully
today we have the same God. The same God who blessed all
those recorded in that chapter in the Hebrews. The same God
who obviously blessed the people that Timotheus spoke about. And the same God that we have
today to come to in our every time of need. What a blessing
God gives us. Faith to believe. It is the gift of God. Faith to believe. You may remember
on Sunday evening we spoke about that man that had come to Jesus
and the Lord asked him if he believed. And he said, I do believe. Help thou mine unbelief. God gave him faith to believe. He was fearful that he might
lose that blessing of believing. And therefore he prayed that
prayer that the Lord would help his unbelief. And perhaps we
feel sometimes the same as that. And then charity, love. Well, we know that we love him. because he first loved us. Not that we loved God, but that
he loved us. And that's amazing, if you and
I just stop and ponder that, to think that we, as utterly
unworthy sinners of the earth, and yet the Lord God Almighty,
none less than that, looked down from heaven, determined to save. He knew from eternity past the
agreement between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit to redeem
the souls of all his elect and to show forth his love. Well, what a blessing for us
today, if we are partakers of that love and think of the wonderful
mercy of God to look upon us individually, so unworthy, indeed
not worthy of any notice, And yet because of His love, He comes
and blesses us. And surely that evokes a love
from us. It's never the other way around.
It's always God's love to us first. A demonstration of His
mercy and favour in loving us with that wonderful blessing
of His love. And so the apostle goes on and
says, and that ye have good remembrance of us always. Well, it's good
that they were remembering what had occurred. Good remembrance.
And it's good in our spiritual life that we remember blessings,
remember those who've been used in those blessings. Just like
it was here, where Paul was so thankful that he was told by
Timothy, of the blessings which these people had received. That you have good remembrance.
They hadn't cast it aside. It was with them. It was good
news. And what a mercy that is, if
God comes and blesses us, that we have a remembrance of those
things which God has indeed done for us. And it was a good remembrance. And it's wonderful we have a
good remembrance, always desiring greatly to see us. Yes, they
wanted to come and once again behold the Apostle Paul and probably
Silas as well. What a mercy it is, there was
that love of the brethren, love to God and love to the brethren
for what the Lord had used them in their lives. And therefore
there was this desire. And it's very interesting to
see that these words are used desiring greatly to see us, greatly
to see those who have been used in the blessing of their souls
It wasn't their desire to worship them, it's this desire to say
and convey to them what God had done for them. And then the Apostle
also reciprocates that statement, as he said, as we also to see
you. There was the agreement on both
sides, they both wanted to see each other it's good isn't it
when brethren look forward to meeting one another to renew
the blessings which have occurred what a mercy in favor that is
and then he says therefore brethren we were comforted over you in
all our affliction and distress by your faith well as we mentioned
last week We do have afflictions and distresses to walk through. Perhaps they may be physical,
perhaps they're brought upon us in our minds, perhaps we have
much to be sorry for, and we have affliction and distresses,
and yet you see to be comforted by the fact that the Lord had
used them. And therefore they were strengthened
by this. And no doubt they were afflicted
and they were distressed. And yet God comforted them. Well,
when God comforts us, as we remember His goodness and mercy, what
a blessing and what a favour. And then He comes down and finally
says, for now we live and ye stand fast in the Lord. And we live and they lived. because of what God had done
in shining his light into our hearts. So whereas we were in
darkness, whereas we were dead in trespasses and in sins, to
realize that now by the grace of God, and that's the only way,
ye stand fast, he said, and today we stand fast in the Lord. And we are encouraged to stand
fast in the things of God. Not to be idle and sit down and
take it easy, but to stand, as we read in the Galatians. And what a blessing that is.
For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. Well, may God
graciously help us each to be encouraged, as the Apostle Paul
was, as he wrote to the Thessalonians. May we be encouraged to read
these words, recognising that we today still worship the same
God. Isn't that wonderful? After all
these years, our great God hasn't changed. He is still merciful. He is still full of favour. And
he still blesses his church with faith and love. And so may we
indeed rejoice in these things and praise our God.