First Thessalonians 1, I enjoyed
so much personally entering in and seeing the history of why
this letter was written. We looked at that in the Bible
study. And if I could, if we had time, I'd do that again.
But Paul wrote this letter to the Thessalonians because of
great persecution. that they were suffering for
believing the truth. They, Paul and Silas and Timothy
went and preached the gospel to them. And the unbelievers
didn't like it and stirred up trouble. And so because of this
persecution, Paul, his heart stirred within him. He penned
this letter in verse one says, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus,
unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and
in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace and peace be unto you, grace
be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, As we pointed out this morning,
Paul, from the start of the letter, from the get-go, he told them
where all salvation is found. That's the first word of comfort. That's the only thing that goes
straight to a sinner's heart. Where salvation found. All the blessings of God are
in His Son, in God the Father, in the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is all in everything that He did for us. We were lost and
undone without God's precious Son and then He reached down
His hand for us. That reaching was a choosing
on His part. That was love on His part. He shed His blood to reach down
for us. God cannot touch sin. That sin
had to be put away. And He gave His blood and He
covered us in His righteousness. And every soul in Him, He said,
middle of verse 1, grace be unto you. and peace. Grace and peace. That grace from
God and that peace with God came to every child of His through
God the Father giving His Son. God the Father giving His Son
to be their substitute. There is no other message to
tell than that. There's no other message to declare. Christ alone. Christ alone. Christ alone. Christ is the grace of God. Christ is the grace of God. Christ
is the peace of God. In Him, holy and just righteousness. In Him, that holy righteousness
and peace kiss each other. in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where mercy is found. I love that song on the cross.
God poured out his wrath and it says judgment was met, the
law satisfied, and mercy was born. The moment that happened,
mercy was born right there. Because of that great work, that
God the Father wrought for his people in his son. Verse one,
the middle of verse one says, grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Paul says to
the Thessalonians in verse two, we give thanks to God always
for you all. He said me and Silas and Timothy. We give thanks to God always
for you all. Because of his great work, we
give thanks for every soul in the great work always. And we can read and understand
that two ways. Number one, this is what he said
to him. I'm thankful for you. That's
the first thing he said to him. I'm thankful. I thank God for
you. Could you really imagine going
through this life without your brethren? Without the brethren
in Christ? Could you imagine, would you
want to go one more day through this life without the brethren
in Christ? He said, I thank God for you.
I love you. I am so glad to be with you. We give thanks to God always
for you. That's what he meant. And that's what he said. We give
thanks to God for you, but the second way that we can read it
is this. We give thanks to God. Always. For you all. I thank God for what I see in
you. That's what Paul is writing to
the Thessalonians. I thank God I give so much thanks to God. For what I see in you, you're
such an encouragement to me. And God is owed great thanks
for the work He has performed. It is so amazing when God causes
a group of people to believe on His Son truly. Such an amazing
work. You are what you are by the grace
of God. And I am what I am by the grace
of God. And all the glory goes to Him.
for what he's done in his church and for his church. All that
glory goes to him. Verse two, we give thanks to
God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. Do you see the reference for
making mention of you in our prayers? You see that center
margin? It says Philippians one, verse three. Turn with me over
there to Philippians one. This has always been one of the
sweetest portions of scripture to me. Philippians 1 verse 3 says, I
thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Every remembrance, the bond of
brothers and sisters in Christ. That is one of the strongest
bonds that a person can know in this life. That's one of the
strongest bonds. We know something. Of how great
our sin is, this is what binds us together. We all have somewhat
of a knowledge of how great our sin is. That's something that
unites us. We all know we're convinced that
we're sinners. I know I'm a sinner. I know you're
a sinner and you know you're a sinner and you know I'm a sinner.
And we're not trying to hide anything from each other or put
on a show for each other. We know how great our sin is,
and we know how great His mercy was toward us. This is what binds
us together. Recipients of this great, great
mercy. And we, to some degree, enter
into what He has gathered us to. And we truly do love each other.
And we truly are thankful for each other. And we have each
other in our hearts. Verse 3 says, I thank my God
upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine
for you all, making request with joy for your fellowship in the
gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this
very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, even as it is meet for
me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart. In as much as both in my bonds
and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers. The margin says, with me of grace. Partakers with me of grace. We're
partakers together. And Paul said, I thank God for
you. And I pray for you in the gospel that God has graciously,
peacefully called us into. And then he said, I want to encourage
you and I want to strengthen you in three things. All right. He's writing this letter to him.
I want to because of all that, I want to encourage you and strengthen
you in three things. Go back to the text. First Thessalonians
one. Verse 2 says, We give thanks to God always
for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience
of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God, in our Father. work of faith, labor of love
and patience of hope. That's what he thanked God for.
And that's what he remembered in his prayer. And that's what
I want us to look at. I want us to see something of faith's
work and love's labor and patience's hope. And I want us to be encouraged
to continue in them. Continue in them. Verse three,
remembering without ceasing your work of faith. Faith is the opposite
of works. Whatever works is, faith is the
opposite of that. Faith is a center resting in
the blood of Christ. That's faith. Faith believes
Christ. Faith rests in the fact that
when Christ cried from the cross, it is finished. It is finished. Faith says it's finished. No
more work to be done. No more work to be done. That's
what faith says. That's what faith is. With that
being said, faith itself has a work. Faith itself has a work. I want us to see the difference
in man's work and faith's work. Do you see the reference there
in verse 3 for work of faith? Galatians 5 verse 6. Do you see
the reference for labor of love? Galatians 5 verse 6. Same reference. Same reference. Turn with me
over there to Galatians 5. Galatians 5 verse 5 says, For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. That's how we wait. That's how we just wait. By faith. Verse 6 says, For in Jesus Christ
Neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. That's the deeds of the flesh.
The deeds of the law, they don't avail anything. Anything. Verse six goes on to
say, but faith which worketh by love. Faith that works avails
something. Now verse 5 says, faith waits. And verse 6 says, faith works. Is that a contradiction? It is
not. Faith waits, but faith runs. Faith waits on Christ. Faith waits on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And faith runs to the Lord Jesus
Christ at the same moment in time. We're all the time saying,
sit still and come to Christ. Don't move a muscle and come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we do that? By faith. by faith. That's faith's work. That's what faith does. Faith
is real. It has a real work. Faith really does follow. Faith
really does run. Faith really does wait. It has
a real work. It's not in word only. It's a true work. And Paul said,
I want to encourage you with all of my heart. To continue
in that work. Continue in that work, faith
trusts. That it has received that the
Lord said. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved." Lord, we call. We're sinners
and we're calling. Faith trusts that it has received,
and at the same moment in time, faith begs with all of its heart. It trusts. It begs. Paul said, I want to encourage
you to keep trusting and keep begging. Rest and run. Trust and beg. Faith truly does not move a muscle. But faith serves with all of
its might, all of its ability. Faith puts no stock in the deeds
of the flesh. Faith puts no stock in the deeds
of the flesh, and faith is always looking for a way to serve God
and serve His people. Always. Paul said, I want to encourage
you in that. That's faith's work. In Galatians
5 verse 6 says, Faith, work. That work is motivated by love.
It works by love. The work of faith is the labor
of love. Faith comes to a center because
of the labor of God's love, God's love to that center. And then
in return, any labor of that center back toward God, it's
not a labor of the law. It is not a labor of the law.
It is not a labor for reward. Well, now, you know, if I'm going
to be a believer now, I might have to start acting like a believer.
It's not a work for reward. It's not a work of the law. It's
a labor of love. And that's all it is. That's
all it is. It's love for him. Faith goes
to work on the heart. And that work is true love. Faith runs because of this love,
love for Christ. That's a believer's total motivation. I want to encourage you, and
this is what Paul is telling the Thessalonians, I want to
encourage you, you know, they turned from idols to serve the
true and living God. They were worshiping those old
ceremonies and this and that and he told them, I want to encourage
you to lay all that mess down and don't ever perform a work
ever again and labor in love. Do the work of faith and labor
in love. We must condemn man's works in
the preaching of the gospel. We must, but God forbid, that
we condemn faith's work. The difference is night and day.
Night and day. We must completely deny the labor
of the law. When we're talking about our
standing before God, we have to deny that. Our standing before
God is in the blood of Jesus Christ alone. And anytime that's
called into question, that's where we stand. Alone, alone,
alone. We must completely deny the labor
of the law. But God forbid that we ever deny
the labor of love. God forbid. Let me show you some
scriptures. Go with me to 2 Corinthians 5. 2nd Corinthians 5, verse 14 says, For the love of Christ constraineth
us. That word constraineth means
keeps us, holds us, restrains us, teaches us. The love of Christ
constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all,
then we're all dead. and that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves." Because the love of Christ has
laid hold of us, we're not living for ourselves anymore. We're
not living for ourselves anymore. Paul said, that's what I want
you to know. I want to, those Thessalonians were going through
so much turmoil for what they believed and all that suffering
and this and that. And Paul said, this is what I
want you to know. You're not living for yourselves anymore.
It does not matter what turmoil is going on on the outside. It
does not matter what's going on all around your life. We're not living for ourselves
anymore. I love the line in that song,
Hail Sovereign Love. I love that song. And that song
talks about against the God that ruled the sky, I fought with
hand uplifted high. It talks about, I despised the
mention of His grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. But it
goes on to say, thus the eternal counsel ran. Almighty love, arrest
that man. Paul said, that's what has happened
to you. And I want to repeat, that's
what's happened to you. That's what's happened to you.
That's why things don't work out in the flesh like you think
they ought to work out. That's why your plan has gone
awry. You're being hedged about. You are being constrained to
Christ. And you're not living for yourself
anymore. We're not living for ourselves anymore. And now the
last line of that song goes on to say, a few more setting suns
at most shall land me on fair Canaan's coast where I shall
sing the song of grace and see my glorious hiding place. That's
what life is all about now. The love of Christ has constrained
us, arrested us. Verse 15 right here says that
he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live
unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose
again. We're living unto him, not living
to ourselves, living unto him. Turn over to Romans 14. Romans 14, verse 7, For none of us liveth
to himself, and no man dieth to himself. That's great news. In Christ, you're not living
to yourself, and thank God you're not dying to yourself. You're
not dying alone. Verse 8, For whether we live,
we live unto the Lord. And whether we die, we die unto
the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or
die, we're the Lord's. We're the Lord's. We belong to
Him. Look at, it's across my page, Romans 12, verse 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service, not your requirement for salvation, your reasonable
service. Verse two, and be not conformed
to this world. May the Lord enable that. Let's
not be conformed to this world. I talked to myself first. Be
not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. And he said down in verse
9, let love be without dissimulation. That means hypocrisy, insincerity. Let your love be truly sincere. Abhor that which is evil, cleave
to that which is good, be kindly affectioned one to another with
brotherly love, in honor, preferring one another. Labor in love. That's
what he's saying. Labor in love. Labor in it. Because the love of Christ has
constrained us, let's labor in love. Go with me to Hebrews 6. I really want us to see this
one. Hebrews 6. Verse 10. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love. Which you have showed toward
his name in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. He said that work in labor of
love. You've showed it toward his name. in that you've ministered to
the saints. And as much as you've done it unto the least of these
my brethren, you've done it unto me." That's what he said. And
he said, I won't forget it. I will not forget that work and
labor of love. And that's an amazing statement.
Because he's the one who wrought the good work in us. He's the
one who put it there in the first place. He did it. We didn't do
it. That's man's work. He wrought it, He produced it,
but He said, as the fruit of my work is evidenced, and you
work in love in return, I won't forget it. I'll honor it, I'll
bless it. He said, God is not unrighteous
to forget your work and labor of love. Are works, these works,
are they the evidence of salvation? Are these works the evidence
of salvation? If my hope was built on my good
works, I could be sky-high one day and in the gutter the next.
I could be sky-high one minute and in the gutter the next minute. Faith is the evidence of salvation. Faith is the evidence. Faith
is unto good works. There's no doubt about that.
Faith will produce good works. God will do a work in his people.
But there are thousands of sinners who are producing what men believe
are good works. And there is lost and there's
blind and there's dead as they can possibly be. We could look
at sinner after sinner after sinner in God's Word who produced
what man will call good works and see that they were just as
dead and as lost as any man can be. But I cannot show you one
sinner who has true faith in the blood of Jesus Christ alone
that will die in his sins. Not one. So Paul said continue
in it. Faith, love, by grace are you
saved through faith. God's free gift You're saved
through faith, but remember this, faith without works is dead.
It's just so, isn't it? It's just so. Faith, that's what
James said, faith without works is dead. If faith does not produce
the work of faith, then it's dead faith. It's dead faith. A man can say he has faith, He
can say it all he wants to, but if there is no coming to Christ,
if there is no bowing, if there is no trusting, if there's no
looking, if there's no crying, if there's no needing, it's dead
faith. It's dead faith. The same thing
applies to love. A man can say he loves all he
wants to, But if love does not produce the labor of love, it
is dead love. Love does not live for itself. Love does not live for itself. Love lives for the object of
that love. Proof of that is our Savior's
love for us. He did not live for Himself. He lived for the object of His
love, totally. Paul said, live for the object
of your love. Let's live for the object of
Christ. We have a new love now, and we
live for Him. Almost finished. Turn with me
to Romans 2. Romans 2, the third thing. I
said there were three things he mentions. work of faith, labor
of love. The third thing that he mentioned
in the text was patience of hope. And he was writing to encourage
them of their work of faith, labor of love, and patience of
hope. And there's a reference there
to this verse. Romans 2 verse 7. This will tell us what patience
of hope means. Romans 2 verse 7. To them, who
by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor in mortality. That's who He gives eternal life
to. To them who by patient continuance, patient continuance. Paul said,
that's what I'm thanking God for. That's not a work of man. That's a work of God in man. And Paul said, I'm so thankful
that I see it. I thank God for what I see him
doing in us, in you. Your work of faith. That labor of love, that true
love. And your continuance. Your continuance,
your patience of hope. We're all sitting here with hope.
Expected anticipation. And we're just sitting here in
patient continuance. Paul said, continue. Continue in these things. He
said, it does my heart so much good to just watch you patiently
wait on the Lord. And it does my heart so much
good to see that. I thank God that I am still waiting
on the Lord. I don't take credit for it. I
don't take any glory in it. I just thank God that he would
still allow me to be waiting on the Lord. And I thank God
that you are still waiting on the Lord. I thank God he gets
all the glory in all things. Faith's work, love's labor, patient
continuance. May he strengthen us in all of
them. All right, let's all stand together.