Well let us turn to the chapter
that we've just read in the first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians
chapter 1 and I'll read again the last two verses of the chapter
verses 9 and 10 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 and to wait for his son from heaven
whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us
from the wrath to come. Paul's ministry there at Thessalonica
was not without fruit. There was much that was a great
encouragement to him. As he says in verse 5, the gospel
came unto them not in words only, but in power, in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance. And as that was so evident in
the changes that occurred in the lives of those who constituted
that gospel church that was formed there in the city. As we see in the ninth verse,
they themselves show us what manner of entering in we had
unto you, and 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." What is he speaking of then? He's speaking
of those marks of the grace of God, those marks that they were
truly converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the subject
matter that I really want to take up tonight. The evidence
of that grace of God that had come into the souls of these
Thessalonians. How they turned from idols. Remember how in the Old Testament,
idolatry was the great sin that the children of Israel were so
guilty of in those years leading up to the Babylonian captivity. How they continually wanted to
be like the nations round about, and how they copied the ways
of those heathen people, how they made their idols, and how
the prophets are continually preaching against such gross
idolatry, what an offense it was to the only living and true
God. We see it in the writings of
prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Ezekiel, of course,
was one who actually lived at the time of that exile when God
did visit a judgment upon his people because of all their idolatrous
ways. There in Ezekiel chapter 6, But
verse 4 following, He says to them, Your altars shall be desolate,
and your images shall be broken. And I will cast down your slain
men before your idols, and I will lay the dead carcasses of the
children of Israel before their idols. And I will scatter your
bones round about your altars. in all your dwelling places the
cities shall be laid waste and the high places shall be desolate
that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate and your
idols may be broken and cease and your images may be cut down
and your works may be abolished and the slain shall fall in the
midst of you and ye shall know that I am the Lord and so that
terrible judgment came upon the nation in the form of Nebuchadnezzar
and his armies of Babylonians. They advanced through Judah and
then laid siege to Jerusalem, destroyed it, razed the temple
to the ground, and then took the people away into exile, all
because of their sin. And that sin expressed really
in their idolatrous ways. Again, there at chapter 14, And verse 3, it says, Son of
man, these men set up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling
block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired
of it all by them? Therefore speak unto them and
say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. Every man of the house
of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart and putteth
the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to
the prophet, I the Lord, will answer him that cometh according
to the multitude of his idols, that I may take the house of
Israel in their own hearts, because they are all estranged from me
through their idols." And time and time again we find these
prophets in speaking against that dreadful sin of idolatry. God had left the Gentile nations
to their own ways, but Israel that was his special people you
only have I known of all the families of the earth he would
say to them and they were so favored with all the holy ordinances
that we have there in the in the Levitical laws all the sacrifices
all that was to be attended to at the tabernacle and in the
in the temple of the Lord how they were to worship the great
God they were to be different They were to be different from
all the other nations round about them, but they wanted to be the
same, to conform to their wicked and idolatrous ways. But as God
had left the Gentile nations in idolatry, when we come to
the New Testament, of course, and we have the record of the
preaching of the Gospel, and Paul's ministry especially, because
he is the apostle that he sends to the Gentiles. We see God now
calling these Gentile nations also away from their idols. There in the sermon that He preaches
in Athens in Acts chapter 17 He says there at verse 29, for
as much then as we are the offspring of God We ought not to think
that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven
by the art and man's device, and the times of this ignorance
God winked at." He did wink at it amongst the Gentile nations,
they were left to their own folly, their own devices, their own
idols. The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now, "...commandeth
all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day
in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Well, even
the Gentiles nowadays are to turn from their idols. And so the Gospel comes to those
at Thessalonica through the ministry of these men And now Paul, together
with Silvanus and Timotheus, addresses himself to that church
and reminds them how God had so wonderfully delivered them. And he's speaking then of their
conversion, the entering in he had amongst them as the gospel
came. And he says, he turns to God
from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for
his son from heaven. And we see quite clearly here
what that conversion was. And of course there are two fundamental
parts to their conversion. He turns to God from idols. What do we have here? We have
faith turning to God, and we have repentance turning from
idols. And this is the message that
Paul was preaching. as he was obedient to that commission,
that commandment that he had received, when the Lord met him
there at Damascus, he was to preach this message to the Gentiles. And again in the Acts, remember
having chapter Twenty, he reminds those elders from Ephesus as
to what his ministry was, testifying, he says, both to the Jew and
to the Gentile, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith, that was
his message. But faith, of course, faith must
always have the preeminence. because whatsoever is not of
faith, Paul says, is sin. Without faith it's impossible
to please God. So faith must have the preeminence. And it's interesting in the way
in which he speaks here of the conversion of these Thessalonians. We certainly see that faith has
the priority. He says, he turned to God first
of all. He turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from
heaven. So as we observe something of
the marks of their conversion, I simply want to speak of their
repentance and of their faith. And their repentance is clearly
spoken of in terms of this turning away from idols. We know that this particular
epistle was written from Athens in chapter 3. He writes, when
we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at
Athens alone, and sent him both as our brother and minister of
God, and our fellow labourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish
you, and to comfort you concerning your faith, that no man should
be moved by these afflictions for yourselves know that we are
appointed there unto." He is still at Athens. He sends Timothy
and Timothy, it appears, is bearing this particular epistle that
Paul has written to them. Now, remember what Paul's experience
was at Athens. We've already made some allusion
to it. It's recorded there in the 17th chapter of the Acts.
how his spirit was so stirred in him when he saw the city wholly
given to idolatry it says there in verse 16 of that 17th chapter
wholly given to idolatry the margin says it was full of idols
this is Athens one of the great wonders of the world really what Great learning would be
associated with Athens, the Greek philosophers. And yet this famed
city is full of idols. And there in verse 23 of that
chapter, Paul observes a particular altar that's addressed to the
unknown God. To the unknown God. What folly is this? They have an altar to a god that
they don't even know. They're so afraid that there
might be some gods in their pantheon that they've completely overlooked
and forgotten. And so they've erected this altar
to a god's unknown Remember how Paul says in his preaching, the
times of this ignorance God willed it. But now he commands men everywhere
to repent of this folly, this sin. Men are idolatrous in their
very nature. They must worship something. If they don't worship the true
God, they'll make themselves a god. They'll have some sort
of natural religion. They might not call it religion.
But God is the one who created man, and God created man in his
own image, and therefore God is made for man. As it says in
the Catechism, man's chief end really is to know God and to
glorify God forever. And if men in their folly have
turned away from the living and true God, they'll They worship
something other than God. That's a folly. That's a folly. And it's not always those idols
that are external. Aren't there also internal idols? We might not have the sort of
gods that they had there at Athens. But we can have gods that lie,
as it were, in our own breasts. Remember again how when Paul
speaks to the Philippians, he reminds them of those whose end
is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is in
their shame, who mind earthly things. Oh, they set their affections
on the things of this world. Their heart is full of sin. and
they make idols of their sins and idols of their lusts. Again,
Paul, when he writes to the Colossians, reminds that church that covetousness
is idolatry. That tenth commandment, thou
shalt not covet. And how Paul was very much made
to understand the significance of that commandment. When he
saw the Pharisee, he thought he was a keeper of the law of
God. He obeyed the commandments. in that he was no thief, no murderer,
no adulterer but then the Lord shows him the spiritual nature
of his Holy Lord and he sees it in terms of the 10th commandment
the 10th commandment, thou shalt not covet and he realizes that
his heart is full of all concupiscence that's a word we have there in
Romans 7 concupiscence, all evil desire Insatiable. He sought satisfaction in those
things that were not God. Idols in the hearts. And we saw
that, didn't we, in that 14th chapter of Ezekiel. Twice in
that passage that we read, in Ezekiel 14, verses 3 and 4, the
Prophet speaks of idols in their hearts. And again, the language
of Ezekiel 8.12, God says to the Prophet, Thou hast seen what
the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark. Every
man in the chambers of his imagery, the chambers of his imagery,
the hearts of men, and what is there? Idols. They make an idol of self. When
Eve is tempted of Satan there in paradise, in the Garden of
Eden. What does he say? He shall be
as gods. All men will make a god of themselves. And their hearts full of all
sorts of idolatry. And these internal idols, what
are they? They're sins, they're lust, they want to keep on satisfying. John Berridge says, each human
heart is Daniel's den, where lusts like lions lay, and yell
and rend unfaithful men who fall an easy prey. Oh, there must be that repentance,
that turning away from sin. And this is what happened. These
people were wonderfully wrought upon by the Spirit of God. The
Gospel comes to them. and it's not simply in word,
it's in power it's in the Holy Ghost, it's in much assurance and there's a genuine repentance
of turning away from their sins the word that we have in the
New Testament, the word for sin is one of those compound words
and it literally means an afterthought or a change of mind. That's the
basic meaning of the word. It's a compound of two words.
It has to do with the mind, the thought patterns, but now there's
been such a fundamental change there. Something's happened.
What's happened to this man? Why his life has been turned
about? His life is turned upside down,
even inside out. Such a great change. And from
whence does this repentance come? It comes from the Lord. Even
Christ himself who is exalted a Prince and a Saviour to give
repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. Oh, if we
want to know what it is to be brought to that experience of
deliverance, it's only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. and
so turning in the second place to the faith he says here ye
turns to God ye turns to God's from idols to serve the living
and true God he's saying those words just now the dearest idol
I have known whatever that idol be help me to tear it from thy
throne and worship only the or do we desire that the Lord Christ
himself might be the one who is truly enthroned upon our hearts? He turned to God, he says, to serve the
living and true God. Who is the living and true God
that he's spoken of here? Well, it's his son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Little children, keep yourself
from idols. Remember the closing words that
we have there at the end of that first general epistle of John.
Oh, he speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God. How John
asserts that blessed truth. And so we have to be those who
would be looking onto Jesus, looking away to Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. If we want faith, we can only
obtain that from the Lord Jesus Christ, just as we can only obtain
real repentance from the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to look
to Him. He is the author, the beginner. of true faith. He's a finisher
of faith. And don't we see those in the
gospel who ask Him for faith? Or that man who comes with his
poor sick child and says, Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Only Christ can deliver us from
the awful sin of unbelief. And the disciples themselves
when they come and say, Lord increase our faith. the living and true God, to serve
the living and true God, it says, and to wait for His Son from
heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come. Commenting on this 10th verse,
Dr. Gil, John Gil, says there are
many articles of faith contained in this expression. this is the description that
we have of the living and true God as we have it set before
us in him who is the image of the invisible God even God's
eternal son the Lord Jesus Christ and so as we think of the faith and our faith is returning
to God let us consider what Paul is saying here in this 10th verse
because he is setting before us him who is the object of faith
and as I've said many times that's the vital thing that's the vital
thing, that's where we find faith when we consider what the scripture
says with regards to the one who is the object it isn't our
faith that saves us it's that one in whom faith centers saving
faith centers in the Savior justifying faith centers in the justifier,
centers in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what a description we have here. He is Son, it says. He is Son. And again, Gil simply remarks
that this is the natural, the essential, and the eternal Son
of God. In other words, this is that
one who is equal to the Father. He is the son of the Father,
in truth and in love. He is of the same essence as
the Father. It's that great mystery, isn't
it, of the doctrine of God, that there are three persons in the
Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Son begotten of the
Father. the Holy Ghost proceeding from
the Father and the Son, they're all of that divine essence. And this one who he speaks of,
his Son, this is the Son of the Father
in truth and love, whose goings forth have been from of all,
from everlasting, or that One who has been eternally brought
forth before there was any other creature. There were no depths,
no fountains of water, no hills, no mountains, there was nothing
of any creation at all. He is that One who is eternally
begotten of the Father, His eternal generation, His eternal sonship. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth, the only begotten
of the Father. There are those, and we trust
in the goodness and the grace of God, we are numbered amongst
them, those who are the adopted sons of God. He has many adopted
sons, but only this one is the begotten. the only begotten of
the Father he is God of God very God of very God begotten not
made of one substance with the Father in the language of the
ancient creed all the word was made flesh then and dwelt among
us says John and we beheld his glory the glory is of the only
begotten of the Father full of grace and truth And now, as he ministers, and
in ministering he is revealing himself, he's revealing God to
men, he's the image of the invisible God. And the Jews begin to understand
something of what this man is saying. And now we're told they
sought the Moor to kill him, because he not only had broken
the Sabbath, the perversions of the Sabbath, he'd healed a
lineman on the Sabbath day, and they accused him. But not just
of breaking the Sabbath, they said also he was a blasphemer,
in that he said that God was his Father. He is God's Son,
to wait for his Son from Heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
whom he raised from the dead. or the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't
this the very gospel that Paul was commissioned to preach? Remember,
time and again in the epistles, Paul defines something of the
gospel that he's preaching. He does it in the opening verses
of the epistles of the Romans. where he speaks of the person
of Christ, the seed of David, but also the Son of God, the
God-man. But he defines it again in the opening words of 1 Corinthians
15. He says, I declare unto you the
gospel which I preached, which also ye have received wherein
ye stand, by which ye are saved, and so on. And then he tells
them what that gospel was. I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. So the gospel
that he preaches concerns the death and the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying there.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And He rose
again on the third day according to the Scriptures. And this is
what He says here, whom He raised from the dead. Christ's death,
Christ's resurrection, this is the message. Again, look at what
He says in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 8. Remember that
Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according
to my gospel." That's his gospel. And what is he preaching there
at Athens amidst all that idolatry? He preaches Christ and the resurrection
from the dead. How important that truth is then. Declared to be the Son of God
with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection
from the dead. why is it that Christ died? if he is the eternal son of God
if he is God manifest in the flesh if that human nature that
was joined to the eternal son of God is the holy thing the
sinless thing if throughout his life he was holy and harmless
and undefiled and separate from sinners how comes it that he
dies? well he dies as a substitute
This is what Paul is preaching. He's preaching, always preaching
the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, whom He raised from the
dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Oh, he preaches Christ's death and Christ's resurrection.
He also preaches that work that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished,
by living and dying and rising again. And what was it that was
accomplished? Well, there was deliverance.
There was justification. Look at what he says here, mark
the name. He has spoken of God's Son, to
wait for His Son, and then he says, even Jesus. He reminds
us of the significance of that name, Jesus. Why Jesus? Well,
what does the angel say to Joseph? Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. There is salvation in this person,
even Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Promised One. the only Saviour. Oh, there is
deliverance in and through Him. Have our sinners justified? Paul
tells us, doesn't he? Being there justified by His
blood. We shall be saved from wrath
through Him. He was obedient and He was obedient
in life, He was obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Oh, he has satisfied all the demands of God's holy law
both in terms of its precepts and its penalties. He has honored
it in obeying every commandment. And then that holy, that sinless
one answers the same law in terms of all its dreadful penalties
because he bears the punishment that was due to the sinner, due
to his people. Oh, in Christ there is deliverance,
in Christ there is justification. He delivered us from the wrath
to come. This is the one in whom faith
sent us. They turned to this God. He turned
to God 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. There's the deity of Christ,
there's the death, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
the work that Christ has accomplished. He has delivered his people from
all the consequences of their sin. He has made the great sin
atoning sacrifice. He has justified the sinner with
the robe of righteousness that he wrought in the obedience of
his life. And then, also here, the apostle
speaks of his coming again, to wait, to wait for his son from
heaven. And the idea that we have in
this word, to wait, It is the only occasion the word is used,
this particular word is used just this one occasion here in
the New Testament. It has this idea of waiting with
expectation, with anticipation. You're looking, you're watching.
And Paul speaks of this, doesn't he, in this letter, this epistle
to these Thessalonians at the end of chapter 4. Verse 14, If we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with Him. For this we sound to you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep,
the word prevent having that old meaning going before, We
which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall
not go before them which are asleep. For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ
shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore
comfort one another with these words. All the comfort of that
blessed expectation that the Lord is going to come again. And who are those that He will
come for? They are His people. All there
are those men and women of faith and of repentance. These are
the marks. These are the marks of the grace of God. Ye turn
to God, he says, from idols to serve the living and true God. And see how, and I make the point
again, faith must have that prime position. Faith has a priority. Faith is first. Ye turn to God. and then he turned from idols
in turning to God faith and repentance and this experience of theirs his conversion
is the evidence really that they are the election of Christ and he tells them that doesn't
he back at verse 4 knowing brethren beloved your election of God How does he know that they are
the elect? The secret things belong unto the Lord, the things
that are revealed belong unto us. The Lord no offender to him,
but Paul says, knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God,
how so? For our gospel. And the word there, the opening
word in verse 5, it's a strong word really, literally because
because our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in
power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. Here's the
evidence. Here's the evidence. They had
experienced the grace of God in conversion, the gifts of faith
and the gifts of repentance. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you and now you turn
to God from idols to serve the living and true God for a long
time I after idols ran but now my God's a martyred man says
Joseph Hart how true it is for this man Christ Jesus he is the
living he is the true God and can we not say with Ephraim,
back in the prophecy of Hosea, Hosea 14.8, what have I to do
anymore with idols? What have we to do with idols?
If we do but know this One, the Living, the true God, His Son,
from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come, and this one who is coming again,
this one that we are waiting for, looking and longing for. Well, the Lord grant that we
might know what it is to possess such faith and repentance as
obviously was evident in these Thessalonians. Amen. Let us, before we turn to the Lord again
in prayer, We sing the second part of the hymn 153. The tune
is Blockley 304. We'll omit verses 3 and 4. The second part of 153. And why, dear Saviour, tell me
why, Thou thus wouldst suffer, bleed, and die? What mighty motive
could thee move? The motive's plain, It was all
for love, for love of whom? Of sinners' base, a hardened
herd, a rebel race, that mocked and trampled on thy blood, and
wantoned with the wounds of God. We're going to omit verses 3
and 4, the hymn 153, the tune 304.