Forty weeks ago, we started this
letter to the Thessalonians with these words. Paul, Silvanus,
and Timothy, to the Church of the Thessalonians, in God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. As we see the close of this letter
today, we see a simple phrase, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you. Not odd for Paul. Matter of fact,
if you look at the Pauline epistles, you would see over and over again
that same theme. May grace come to you, grace
to you. It's a charge, it's a declaration. It's a certainty, and the closing
of his letters, may the grace of God be with you. Now, you
may not think about it often, and I'm willing to bet that most
of us, myself included, throughout the majority of our Christian
faith, have overlooked these introductions and these salutations. not really paid much attention
to them in the context of the entire letter. And while they
may be powerful, just like the words of that new hymn, oftentimes
we are so eager to land the plane that we forget that the landing
is the point, not the travel, not the journey, but the destination. If we pause for a moment and
we ask ourselves, what is the grace of God? I mean, we've all got an answer,
do we not? We say it all the time, grace be with you. Grace,
grace, God's grace. Grace, grace, grace. Grace and
peace. I mean, many of us, I know the
brothers especially, we sign our emails with grace and peace.
Or some of us real heady guys, DV, Deo Valente, the Lord wills. But in some sense, we're always
thinking about grace. We're always invoking the idea
of grace. Well, God's grace is great, amazing
grace. We love to sing. But yet, do
we really contemplate the depth of grace? Do we understand the
punch of the power of the close of this phrase? The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. The grace that takes away
the stain of sin. The grace that empowers us to
be freed from the power of sin. The penalty of sin. The cost
of such grace. Brothers and sisters, we do not
gather here because we must come to a place. We gather here because
we are indeed a people who have been saved by the grace of God. And in being so, in doing so,
in living accordingly, in loving and learning through the Word
together, we glorify God in ways that we could never understand
to the praise of His glorious grace. Never forget that the
grace of God is the point. The grace of God is the point
that places His glorious worship on our tongues. God's grace and the praise thereof
is what the church is all about. To the praise of His glorious
grace. And you might think, well, are
we not now worshiping the gift? Absolutely. For that's what we
have been created to do. Worship the gift of God, who
is His grace, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. See, we think it's
just something that God has done. We think it's just something
that God has created. We think it's just something
that has happened for us and it's a product of who God is,
which is true. But friends, the grace of God,
the mercy seat of God is Jesus Christ the Son. That's why it
is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is His to give,
it is His to withhold, It is His to command. It is His to
express. And it is all we have. If we
believe in sola gratia, if we believe in by grace alone, if
we truly believe in that, then we need to take pause and contemplate
the purposes for which Paul wrote these letters, for which Paul
wrote this closing. Grace. and peace. It rings, in my opinion, like
an echo of an old, long-forgotten jingle. Even our church, grace,
truth. From Moses we receive the law,
but from Jesus we receive grace upon grace upon grace upon grace
upon grace. His fullness as of the Son from
the Father, full of what? Grace and truth. We see the fullness
of God. So friends, I don't think there's
a better name for an assembly than Grace Truth Church. In May of 2011, when I decided
that would be a wonderful name for an assembly, Very dear people,
as I sent that out, I said, look at this. Isn't this really the
epitome of what God is doing, creating a people for grace,
from grace, for truth, from truth? Isn't that the point of the church?
And one of them wrote back, I'm not trying to be contrarian,
but that's a stupid name. It doesn't sound good. How about
Grace Community Church? How about Grace and Truth Church? Or how about just something totally
different? Nobody's gonna wanna come to
a church named Grace Truth. There's not even a space between
the words. There's no space there, because I wanted you to realize
it's gonna be tight. It's gonna be compact. But I really do believe, friends,
that we often take too much time focusing on that which is good
in Scripture while ignoring that which is power in Scripture.
We've seen Paul tell these Christians, that he's thankful to God that
they exist. He's thankful to God for their
affection. He's thankful to God for their hearing of the word
and their reception of the gospel, empowered by the Holy Spirit
and with much affliction. He's thankful that he loves them
with all the affection of Christ. He's thankful that God has purposed
their salvation. He's thankful that their witness
and their testimony has run throughout all of Asia Minor throughout
all of Achaia, throughout all of Macedonia, that when their
missionary journeys went into other places, the whisper of
the testimony and the witness of the gospel power of the Thessalonians
was already there. That's what it means to be a
light, church. That's what it means to be a people who are
not of this world. That's what it means to forsake
all that we are as a culture, as a people, as politics, and
everything else, so that we can be known by the banner of Christ
and His grace alone. It's an idiotic idea in its foolishness
to the world, but it's a powerful expression of God's manifold
wisdom. Paul is thankful that the ministry
that they had there for the apostles was so beloved. He's thankful
that though they had some problems, that they walked in a manner
worthy of the cross. He's thankful that though they
had suffered much affliction and persecution, that they persevered.
He's thankful that all of these things happened for the sake
of their sanctification, for that is the will of God for them.
He's thankful that they were always praying, always receiving,
always teaching the Word of God. He's thankful that they were
longing to see Paul, and that even though the enemy had hindered
Paul and the apostles from going back, that he knew then, as Timothy
reported back to him, that God had continued to do a work in
them based on their tenacity and their fire and their passion
and their zeal to live as a people of faith, as a community of faith,
as a family. at all costs. He was encouraged,
because He grieved much, and He was thankful that even in
His grief, that the sufficiency of God's grace through Jesus
Christ was enough to keep Him sound. But that His joy was fulfilled,
for the Thessalonians were His crown, and His joy, and His glory,
because they were the product of the work of His Lord. He was
thankful for that. Paul continued to teach that
the life that they lived was a life that pleased the Lord,
and that the life that they lived was a product of the grace of
God, and that they were continually to work internally to maintain
the unity of the peace. He was thankful that God was
allowing them to overcome diverse circumstances. conflict. He was thankful that the Lord
was able to help them understand that even though there might
have been disagreements, that the gospel washed that away. He was thankful that even though
they had heard improper theology about the coming of the Lord
and the resurrection of the dead, that they did not lose heart.
He was thankful that He had opportunity to correct them, to remind them
of what He taught them about the day of judgment, and to remind
them that they were not to be condemned and stand in fear of
the return of the Lord Jesus, but because of His work in them,
because of their holiness, because of their affection, that the
Lord would be honored. to see them. He was thankful. He was thankful for all these
things. He was thankful that they honored their pastors, that
they honored the Word, that they honored each other, that they
were at peace, that they would work to minister to each other
so that they would admonish the idle, strengthen the weak, raise
up the lowly hearted, the disheartened. He was thankful that they would
not be vindictive. He was thankful that they would
not repay evil for evil, but that they would follow the way
of Christ who, though He was God, died on the cross to save
His enemies, those who despised Him and hated Him. He was thankful that in them
they could pray, rejoice in all circumstances. that they could,
without ceasing, be in prayer. That they could always, in everything,
not quench the Spirit of God. And then he gets down to the
end of this letter in chapter 523, and I want to revisit all
of these verses in closing today. Now may the God of peace Himself
sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul
and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He who calls you is faithful.
He will surely do it. Brothers, pray for us. Greet
all the brothers with a holy kiss. I put you under oath before
the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. So here we are at
the end, and all of these things, and I've missed probably 20 different
specifics of this text and the review, but you can read it,
you can see it, you know what we've learned, you know what
we've tried to focus on. Why is grace so easy to say,
but yet it's so hard to live in our lives, in our thoughts,
and in our hearts? It's hard to live because the
flesh is at work. You might say, well, I live in
the grace of God. Do we? Yes, of course we do. But do we live
out the grace of God? Do we work out our salvation
because He has worked it in us? Do we live in submission to the
Word? By the grace of God alone we
do. But what does that really look like? What is the poster
child of Christianity supposed to be? Just like the Thessalonians. The Thessalonians are the example
of how we ought to look as Grace Truth Church. The Thessalonians
are the example of how we ought to pray as a people. The Thessalonians
are the example of how we ought to suffer, of how we ought to
live, of how we ought to learn. There's another L, how we ought
to lean on the sufficiency of Christ. The Thessalonians give
us this example. Paul provided that example. Follow
me as I follow Christ. So we're not following Paul.
We're not following the Thessalonians. We're following them as they
follow Christ. We follow each other as we follow Christ. But
how do we know where Christ is, and which way He walks, and the
manner in which He speaks, and the decisions that He would make?
Because we see it in His Word. We see it in this letter. And
it's difficult to live in grace or live out grace because there
are many things in this world that tempt us. There are many
things in this world that taunt us. There are many people in
this room that aggravate us. There are many people in this
world that we could really do without. It would be better for
our lives. It would be more healing and
wholesome. But yet that's not what Jesus
did. That's not what Paul shows. That's not how the Thessalonians
lived. Friends, we gather because God is growing us to spiritual
maturity together as a people, so that when the work of God
is established and continually visible among us, that everyone
who looks upon this flock says, there is no way possible under
any instrument of man, under any will or decision of humanity,
that these people could be this way. They must be a cult. They must be liars. You got that right. They must
be hypocrites. Absolutely. But by the grace
of God, we live out our faith in His power. He is able to sanctify
us, to keep us. You remember that sermon three
weeks ago? God is able. Now may the God of peace. In the very beginning of this
letter, peace, grace to you, and peace. We remember that months
and months ago, nearly a year ago, where we saw in that text
that where there is grace given to a people, there is peace with
God. And do you know what the Thessalonians
did in preparation for that peace? Nada. They worshipped their pagan
gods, and lived their pagan lives, and played their pagan harps,
and partied their pagan parties. And the gospel of grace came
to their land, and they heard it, and they became at peace
with God. This is grace. Grace brings peace. How might a man be right with
God? He cannot be. except God make
him right with him. That is why we worship the Father.
Lest we have it the other way, lest we take our own decisions,
and our own merits, and our own will, and our own righteousness,
and our own lives, and our own holiness, and our own good deeds,
and we measure them up against our neighbors, and we say, see,
I'm a lot better than he, therefore I'm good. We might be like the
rich young ruler who followed all the laws of Moses. So he
thought. We might even be like Paul, who
said, according to the law, I'm blameless. What? I'm a Jew of
all Jews, from the tribe of Benjamin, named Saulus, for crying out
loud. Saul. You know the heritage of that
in the Hebrew people? It's their king. His parents
loved Judaism so much they named their son after their king. He was such a Jew that his parents
made sure he was circumcised not eight minutes, not eight
hours, but on the eighth day as the law required. This homeboy
had been following the law when he was a zygote. If you don't
know what that is, take biology. It's the step before the embryo.
And there's some things in between. He said, I've been walking in
the precepts of my faith and the precepts of God, Jehovah,
and in the law of Moses since before I was born. Now, not only was he then, but
he raised to learn the law, to memorize the law, to understand
the law, to live the law, became part of the Pharisees, and not
just the Pharisee, but of the Sanhedrin, which was the ruling
court of the government of the Jews. Are we that righteous? Paul says, everything that I
was, everything that I'd done, every act of obedience that I'd
ever mustered in my heart was worthless! Worthless! Every holy word, every holy prayer,
every holy Bible, every holy chant, every sacrifice, every
court trial, every stitch of wisdom that I governed over that
desk, worthless. Because Christ came and saved
me. And that's the only way I knew
peace with God. The grace of God came upon Paul, Saul, and he was right with God. This language that we see here
is not a wish. May the God of peace Himself. It's not a hope or Maybe he will. It's like a few, I don't know,
have our children aren't really in athletics and sports, but
let's just say that they were in weightlifting. And they were doing the squats
and deadlifts and cleaning jerks and all this crazy stuff. Failed
and failed, and mom and I are in the stands, power to you,
baby, more power to you. What are we saying? Get some
power. Get up on it. You can do it.
You can do it. That's not what Paul's saying. It's close, but it's not what
Paul's saying. Paul's not saying, I hope you
get the power. I hope you get the grace. I hope
you find the peace. May the Lord hopefully give it to you. No,
it's there. And letters of this day used
to be closed Wishing prosperity on its readers. You know how
we use the word sincerely? Do you ever use that word in
reality? Or regards? Really? Regards. We might. Best wishes. Do we say that when people leave
our house? Best wishes. Sincerely. No, it's just what we write.
So in the day of Paul, the common expression for the close of a
letter was, may you be prosperous. It's like chanting a blessing.
May you be successful. Good luck. Godspeed. Break a leg if you're in theater.
It's bad luck to wish someone good luck, so you tell them to
break a leg. That's where that came from, superstition. Paul's not doing that. He's transformed
the way you write. Why? Because the grace of God
transforms the mind and transforms the reality. No longer is it
a parting shot of prosperity. It's an absolute effectual certainty
of grace. It's a reminder that that which
was sent to you by the Lord Jesus through the writing of this letter
is now yours and it sits with you and it stays with you. The
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ brings peace. And the language
here in this letter is not that He wishes that they would have
peace and grace. It's that He is certain that
they have peace and grace. He is confident that they have
peace and grace. It is an effectual close. It's
yours. Now, it's with you. To you and
with you. Here it sits. And it fits perfectly
the God of peace, who made you at peace with Him through the
grace that He gave you, who is Jesus Christ, to satisfy His
judgment against you, which is justice and righteousness, so
that you no longer have to endure eternal damnation. We cannot
appease God in any way except damnation. Understand that. No matter how hard we try, no
matter how hard we work, there is nothing, there is absolutely
nothing that could ever satisfy God's wrath and justice and judgment
except that we be condemned forever. Don't forget that. Nothing. On our part. But Jesus Christ,
becoming a man, living perfectly, enduring all temptation, never
sinning, then sacrificing Himself in place of us, God has punished
our sin on someone who is worthy of the death to pay for it. You
ever thought why condemnation had to be eternal? But because we're sinners, our
death doesn't even satisfy righteousness. Because we're sinners, to snuff
us out in a couple of years or a couple of minutes doesn't satisfy
sinning against an eternal God. It must go on forever and ever
and ever and ever. And after an eternity, then,
And only then will God be satisfied. But in six hours and a few days,
God's justice was satisfied in Jesus Christ. Friends, that is
graciousness. And that graciousness is effectual. That graciousness is kind. That
graciousness is righteous because Jesus paid the debt. And the grace of God is what
empowers God to sanctify us completely. The grace of God through Jesus
Christ, through His life, through His death, through His resurrection,
satisfies God's ableness in His justice and righteousness to
sanctify us completely. Now what's that mean? That means
without Christ substituted for our sin, We could never be righteous. And if God declared me righteous
when I'm guilty, He's not God, He's a liar. If God lets me off of my sin,
He's not just. There's no justice letting people
get away with sin. Friends, you and I have not gotten
away with our sin. Did you hear that? Wait a minute. Romans 8.1, man, Romans 8.1.
Therefore now there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
Oh, Christ Jesus, I get it. In Christ Jesus. We did not get
away with our sin. Christ took it. He suffered for
it. He became sin that we would be
the righteousness of God. See what kind of love the Father
has given to us. that we should be called the
children of God, and so we are. 1 John 3, verse 1. It is God's grace that enables
Him, through Jesus Christ, to sanctify us completely. And may
your whole spirit and soul be kept blameless. Friends, are
you blameless today? I mean, think about that. I don't
want you to raise your hand or elbow your spouse or point to
your kids, but think about it. Are you blameless today? Are
you sinless this day as you sit in this chair? Have you sinned
not this day? Did you complain it was too cold
when you came in? Oh! Did you complain it's getting
too hot now that we're into the service? Are you grumbling in
your spirit because the kids might make noise? Are you frustrated? Are you going to fight over where
you're going to eat after church? Are you going to have visions
of doing donuts in the highway because that guy that cut you
off? You don't do it, but you have visions like, oh, if I could
just have a tank. Friends, we've sinned today.
And some of us, without even our knowledge, sin forever rests
indwelling inside of our flesh, waiting and fighting and tempting,
looking. And that might not be theologically
accurate, those little things there. Don't burn me. But James tells us that the reason
that we sin is because when the carrot is hung before us, we
really want it. We want to be angry. We want
to be pitied. We want to do these things. We
want to feel this way in our flesh. But the Spirit of God
within us, the new heart and the new mind, we don't want that. We want to honor God. So we're
like schizophrenics all the time. But the Bible says here that
God Himself, the One who has established the peace through
Jesus Christ, is going to and will sanctify us completely,
and that our whole spirit, and that our whole soul, and that
our whole body will be blameless and kept blameless at the day
of Christ. How is that possible? Because
of the grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. because of everything
that I've just said, the gospel that I've already shared 15 times
in this sermon thus far. This is the reality of the grace
of God, that we are blameless in His sight, that we are kept
by His power. Remember Peter? Remember what
Peter says that comes to mind when I hear these things, and
I just read out of chapter 5, but 1 Peter chapter 1, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According
to His great mercy, grace, He has caused us to be born again
to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, unto an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled,
unfading, listen to this, kept in heaven for you, who by God's
power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to
be revealed in the last days. I hear all this through faith,
by faith, of faith, in faith. What is faith? Isn't that my
work? Isn't that what I do? No! Faith that you do. Faith that you have. Faith that
you exercise as a gift of God. And we grow into the understanding
of that. For by grace, you have been saved. Through faith. Without faith,
you can't be saved. Without grace, you can't have
faith. This is the gift of God that
you may not boast. I can't boast in grace. Don't
be a dummy. Oh, he's talking about grace
as a gift, so you don't boast. No, he's talking about faith
as the gift of grace, so you don't boast. Why? Because I don't
go around and look at me. I gave God grace by coming to
Him. It doesn't make sense in any logic. We read into the Scripture and
we make it what we want. It's called heresy. I see Jesus. It's the way I see Jesus. That's
how I've taught people to remember that. Because I see him the way
I want to see him. Reading into the text of God,
putting words into the mouth of God rather than hearing that
which comes clearly from the mouth of God called exegesis,
out of. The reality of God's grace is
seen in the work of redemption. The reality of God's grace is
that we are redeemed people by the blood of Jesus Christ. The
reality of God's grace is seen in the power of the cross, a
perfect song. We don't collaborate on these songs. That's the point. Doug, we're going to start singing
the same two songs every week if somebody else doesn't start
picking these things out. So Doug picks them out and they're
always fit. You know why? Because the gospel
is what we sing, and the gospel is what we preach, and the Word
of God is what we sing, and the Word of God is what we preach.
And brothers and sisters, it is a supernatural beauty, a supernatural
beauty, if you protect the music just like you protect the pulpit. The power of the cross shows the reality of God's grace. The purpose of God. Don't you
know that God did not look around and He sees someone and kind
of says, yeah, I got another one. Oh, no, you didn't believe. That's not the God of heaven.
God doesn't say, alright, I hate all y'all because you're sinners. I've got a word for you, you're
all condemned. See you later. If he said that,
he'd still be worth all glory and honor and praise. God did
not have to save a people. And God did not purpose after
the Garden of Eden when He saw Eve and Adam eat of the tree
and die. He did not say, gobbledygoop,
look, what are we gonna do next? Well, son, I guess I'm gonna
have to send you down there to pay for some people. Die in their
place, because I really love this couple. That son they're
gonna have after a while, he's a different story, but I'll protect
him anyway, because I love them. That is not the way God works. God said, let there be light,
and the decrees of God are eternal. You know what that means? You
know what eternity actually means? No beginning, no end. Me and
Brother Trey were talking about the decrees of God a little bit
yesterday. It'd be a good class. So therefore that God did not
purpose in a specific era to redeem himself a people, God
did not start and decide, I'm gonna love James once he gets
this down. No, God has loved me before there
was me. And if you are in Christ, God
has loved you too, eternally. We need to stop moving on to
God human philosophy. We need to stop thinking that
God thinks the way we do. We need to stop asserting that
our emotional state and the way we process stuff is the way God
processes it with great knowledge. God is not a big, great granddaddy
that's really wise. God is the omnipotent Creator
of all things, and He is the Supreme Being over the cosmos
and the metaphysical. He has existed eternally, forever. He is the caused cause, the premier,
the alpha, the omega, the One. He is the One, and Jesus Christ
the Son is eternally equal to God the Father. Jesus is God. We cannot paint God with a persona
of humanity. God's purpose in creating the
world was to reveal His glory through the redemption of His
people and through the judgment of sin. Do you hear that? That's grace. What kind of work
goes into that kind of plan? How long, if we were to measure
the eternal existence of God, would it be? But what does it all boil down
to for us, beloved? What does the grace of God all
boil down to for us? What is it? Why is it so important? Because it is there we find the
certainty of salvation. Not the wishful thinking of salvation.
Listen to me. Not the wishful thinking. Not
that I hope I'm saved. Not that I think I can, I think
I know I am. These things are written, John
would say, that you may know that you have eternal life. These
things are written that you may believe. And by so believing,
you have eternal life in His name. How do we have eternal
life in the name of Jesus? That means Jesus gives us eternal
life. He is the authority of the one
who gives life. He is the one to whom is due
the glorious praise of securing our salvation. He is the mercy
seat of God. Jesus. And now that we have the grace
of God, we are able to fulfill the measure of these requests
that we see in this text. And that's what I want us to
understand as we leave this text this day. This text cannot leave
us. We should not forget. the commands
here. We should not labor in our flesh
to work out these commands, but we should labor, listen, we should
labor in our faith to trust in God to work in us these things. And when we say, I can't even
believe that God can do, then we cry out to God to give us
faith and to help our unbelief. Because of the grace of God, we will live surely according
to His purpose. So that when Paul says, pray
for us, and we're sort of like the three outside the garden
of Gethsemane who loved Jesus, and Jesus, their King, came out
of the garden after the first... Remember that? He says, stand,
watch, and pray. What did He say? I am grieved.
And what did they do? They fell asleep. Why? Because they were running for
days. For Pete's sake, they've been running. They were running
from the Jews. They were running from arrest.
They were running and hiding. Things got bad real quick for
Jesus and His disciples. And He knew Judas Iscariot was
coming. His divine nature. However that works, informed
his human mind that here comes the accuser. Here comes the traitor. Jesus is not a superhero. He's
a man. A human. Completely. With a human nature. Fully. Incarnated as a creation. but He's fully God at the same
time. Yep, just sit there and just,
that's the look, that's the eternal expression of the Incarnation. So when He says, pray for us
brothers, are you able to pray? When you see those notices come
up in an email or a text or here in person or on Facebook, are
you able to pray or are you too tired? Are you able to pray or
is your body overwhelmed? Is your mind overwhelmed? I would
suggest that most of us, if we were honest, prayer is a work. It's a labor. It's difficult.
Why? Because it's not easy to pull off because of our flesh.
It's not easy to pull off. because of our sin. So who affects
prayer in our hearts? Romans 8 says that God does.
Romans 8 says because of His grace, when we cannot even pray
or know how we ought to pray, and all we can do is sit and
moan, oh God, that the Spirit prays. Wow! So maybe we can't pray, we're
praying. We'll be prayed for. And the Spirit will cause some
of us to pray for the others of us who can't. The most amazing thing you can
do for me and my family is pray for us every day. I don't care
if you do anything else. You can come in here every morning
and slap me and spit on me. As long as you're praying for
me, I love you. I'm going to love you anyway. But you know,
that's an absurd thing to say, but prayer will do more than
anything else. And we can pray, we can pray
because of the grace of God. Now what's that mean? We're empowered
to pray because of the grace of God. We're equipped to pray
because of the grace of God. We're effectual in our prayers
because of the grace of God. Do you understand that an unbeliever
cannot pray to God? You cannot pray to the God of
heaven in whom you do not believe, in whom you have not been born,
for whom you do not live. That text that I read out of
1 Peter 4 this morning, before the service started, teaches
us that we ought to act and live accordingly, so that our prayers
are effectual. We cannot say, oh God, I pray,
pray, pray, pray. No, I'm not going to church.
Then stop praying! Don't pray ever again. If you're
going to just not obey God on a small thing, don't pray for
Him on a big thing. You see what I'm saying? Like, what the world?
Well, you know, I just, I got to have these things in my life.
I got to have this sin in my life. I got to have, I'm just
not going to give up this wickedness. But I'm going to pray for God
to save my children. I'm going to pray for God to give me peace. I'm going
to pray for God to work these things in my life. Quit. Because an
effectual prayer is not to snuggle with sin over here and then struggle
with the Lord in prayer over here. We must pray that God would
take us out of temptation. Not say, it's alright, let me
just keep this little private life. You see? We've all got
sin. If we say we don't have sin,
we lie, according to John. But friends, if we want to pray
to the Lord, the Spirit of God convicts us of that sin as we're
praying for others and for ourselves. We're also praying for God to
take away these lures, take away these enticements, take away
these affections that are of the world and are not of God
and are passing away. Why in the world do we continually
play and placate to a dead carcass and call it a meal? Why do we
surrender to a pile of dung on a table and call it gourmet? Friends, we all do it. Why? Because we're in a war. But Christ
is victorious in this war, and God's grace has effectually given
us the power to pray. And when we pray, God hears us.
If we pray His will, He hears us. Friends, it is the will of
God for our sanctification. Let us pray for it. It is the
will of God for us to walk in holiness and purity and love
and unity. Let us pray for it. It is the
will of God that we forgive our enemies and love them and pray
for them. Let us pray that God would put that in our hearts.
It is the will of God that we grow together as a body, as a
family. It is the will of God that we
learn and study the Word. It is the will of God that we
teach our children the Scriptures. Let us pray that we might do
that instead of everything else that we think is important. If
we are not praying for it, it will not come to pass. And when we cannot pray, we best
be on our knees asking God to help us pray. And when we cannot
do that, at the simplest, we can tell each other, pray for
me, I need prayer. I can pray for you like this,
God, I don't know what they need, but You do please. I ask of You
to do that which they need. I don't have to know the details.
You don't have to confess every single jot. Now if you want to,
that's your business. But you see what I'm saying?
You don't have to feel intimidated to say, I need prayer. You don't
have to give it all away. The grace of God allows us to
pray. Lord, lay bare before me my heart that I might see the
sin against You, that I might see the iniquities of my soul,
that You might help me not be the fleshly man that I so desperately
fight against. And He will. And your sins will
start to look less and less like sins and more and more like thoughts. And He says, and greet all the
brothers with a holy kiss, this love and this affection. You
know, when we're down, when we're fighting, when we're disturbed,
when we're living in a problem, is it really time to start loving
people? Is it really the opportunity
that we have? In our world and in our culture, we often just...
I just can't love people right now. I can't go fellowship with
them. I can't answer that call. I can't
go to that visitation. I can't do this right now. I'm
overwhelmed. You ever been like that? And
then what happens? Guilt, shame, brokenness, depression,
pity. I'm a believer, I must be a Satanist,
I'm the devil himself. I mean, we just go right down
the road. Get out the hay fork, hit the
streets. But that's the war we're all
fighting. And if we fight it together, We know the grace of
God has been given to us because we received the Word of God with
power and it's with much affliction. Friends, let me tell you why
suffering is a requirement of salvation. Not for salvation,
of salvation, a fruit of salvation. Let's put it that way. It's required
of us because when we suffer, we stay out of sin. When we suffer, We're not thinking
selfishly about what we want to accomplish and how we want
to devour and please our flesh. When we're suffering, when we
sit there and look and go, there's nothing else, what do I do? We lean on the grace of God.
That's what I just read out of 1 Peter 4. For those who suffer
in the flesh, cease from sinning. So the discipline of a good father
is one that causes pain in the life of his children. Not punitive
pain, but disciplinary pain that stretches them and hurts them
and bends them in a way that's non-conforming to the world,
but transforming in Christ. And it hurts and children
hate parents. If your children do not hate
you, you are a terrible parent. At no time when we discipline
our children, except for the oddity that you see running back
and to here, do they ever say thank you. For some reason she
does. Thank you. Really? I don't think she understands
quite what that means. Maybe she does. But brothers, sisters, are being
pressed into the likeness of God because He is gracious toward
us. And God takes away idols that
we're not even empowered to throw away. Oh, this is killing me.
This is killing my heart. This is killing my soul. This
is killing my mind. This little thing that I love, I hold it.
I keep it with me. I have a bag and I hold it tight. I put it
on the shelf at night. It's in my mind. It's in my heart.
It's in my hands. It's always with me. Oh, no, God, don't take
that away. I love it too much. And all of
a sudden, crash, burn, it sets on fire. And you're like, oh,
wow. That's love. That's grace. That happens in
the lives of Christians. What are some of those idols?
Children? Marriages? Money? Prestige? Honor? Ministry? He takes it. The mind sometimes. God will
take it. Dull it a little bit. It's graciousness. Depends on what you think is
most precious. Because the reward of heaven
is Jesus Christ. Alone. Sorry, guys. Come on Tuesday nights if you
want to hear how to read Revelation. We're in week two this Tuesday. But I'm sorry to tell you, the
crowns you get are not ones that you get to keep. And they're
not crowns that are going to have any value at all. The mansion
you get isn't even going to have a door on it or a bathroom. It's
not even going to have walls or a bed. The treasure of heaven is nothing
for you, it's everything for Jesus. And because it is all
for Jesus, it's everything for us. Why? Because there's nothing
else in this cosmos that could set before me that would measure
against the beauty and the value of Jesus Christ. So, if I got
to heaven and Jesus handed me something, I'd think He was a
fool. Here's your prize. And you know, it's in that little
plastic capsule, like the quarter machine, and you open it up,
and it's a ring. You're like, thanks, Jesus. It's
worth 60 trillion dollars. Thanks, Jesus. Hey, you want
this, baby? Here, give it to the dog. It's
worthless. Jesus is the treasure of heaven.
That is why we exist so that we may have the prize, the crown
of life, the joy of eternity, Jesus Christ. Oh, Paul would
say, what does he say? I'm puzzled. I'm perplexed. I'm
stuck between two places. I don't know what I should do.
I long to be with Christ, for to live is Christ. To die is
far better. I don't know what to do. What
shall I do?" Can you imagine him as he walked and paced in
that room, as that scribe wrote the words that he said, and that
scribe's thinking, I'm not going to write that down. I think he's just ranting
right now. Okay, write that down? Sure, write that down. What was
Paul going through? Stop thinking that the apostles
sat down and said, okay, let's get the typewriter out. Give
me some tea. I mean, no! These were agonizing,
laborious writings. I don't know which I should choose,
for it is far better for me to die and give all of this up,
that I might stand before Christ, who is my crown, who is my hope,
who is my treasure. It's the reason I run the race,
it's the reason I plant in the fields, it's the reason that
I water and do all that I do for the harvest, it's the reason
that I work as a good soldier and share in the sufferings of
Jesus Christ, so that I may stand before Him in glory and in splendor,
and one day be satisfied to the fullest of my soul, never to
be tempted again, never to suffer again, never to cry again, that
I might be complete with all of His fullness, face to face,
Jesus Christ alone. This is the hope of the believer. Not even the loved ones who have
gone before us. They better step in line or get
out of my way. That should be our heart for
Jesus Christ. There best not be a waiting room
of folks trying to talk to me when I get ready to see Jesus,
because I'm going to hurt their feelings. There won't be. You step in front
of them, they're going to knock you down too. You see what I
mean? That's the point. Christ is the hope. We grow to
love Him that way more and more. We don't start out like that.
We start out with a love, but it's insufficient, it's incomplete.
But as we mature, as we start to see, as we start to think
about these things, the grace of God grows us and grows our
affection in such a way that we can't even explain it. Peter
would say that our joy is inexpressible. You can't express this with somebody.
You can't tell somebody that you love this invisible Jesus
that you've never met. That's the argument of 1 Peter
1. This invisible Jesus that you've never met, that you've
never seen, but you love more than you love your children,
more than you love your spouse, more than you love your grandparents
and your parents and your aunts and your uncles, more than you
love everything. And it comes by the grace of
God. We greet each other in this love.
We teach this Word. And I won't go through that again,
but we know that it is through the Word of God that the grace,
this grace, this grace, the effects of this salvation are actually
given to us. Because of grace, we can now. Live in Christ. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. In closing, look at this. Grace here is abundantly applied. Abundantly given. Continually
given. Grace upon grace. Through the
Word of God alone. Friends, this is where we fail.
Go back and listen to last week's sermon. Why exposition is the only means
through which the church can be matured. I cannot give you three points and an anecdote and some kind of visual aid and
you go home filled, full. That's humanism. But God in His sovereignty and
by His Spirit can put these words in your heart and you're overwhelmed
with the fullness of His glory and His love and His perfection
and His grace. the Word of God when we see in
our lives that the flesh starts to have dominance. You know what
I'm talking about? Sometimes it might be a specific
time of day, day of week, week of the month, month of the year,
year of the century. We might see it, sometimes in
times of suffering, sometimes in time of prosperity, it doesn't
matter, we could be going well and all of a sudden someone just
rubs us the wrong way, something pops into our mind, that person
over there looked at me wrong, that person over there said something
to me wrong, this friend of mine, this parent of mine, this child
of mine, whatever, and then all of a sudden it starts to see
that the flesh has dominance. What is the problem? The problem
is we try to think that we can eat the word of God as needed. We don't eat food as needed. Yeah, we do. We eat three meals a day. No,
we don't. We eat when we eat. We eat. We don't eat as needed. We eat when we start to get a
little grumbly. We eat when the clock goes boom, whenever it's
supposed to naturally be time to eat, which I don't necessarily
think that's a good thing, but for people on work schedules,
I mean, you just gotta do it like that. But we don't eat when
we need to eat. We stay eating constantly so
that we don't need to eat. You can go a week without eating.
You can go two weeks without eating. Then you might need to
eat. That's how we eat the Word of
God. I'm going to get the Bible out when I need it. No, you need
to get the Bible out more regularly than we do our food. I don't
have time. Yes, we do. Don't tell me that. Don't tell me that. You have
time. I don't want to hear it. Everybody in here is equally busy with
everything they're doing. You have time to read the Bible.
You have time. You have time to hear the Word
of God. You have time to pray and you have time to study. I
promise you that if you took a list of everything and every
hour you spent, you would spend, you spend 30% of your time on
things that are non-eternal or and also non-essential to eternity,
even to your life. Well, I got to do this, I got
to do that. Mothers are world-class. What do they do? Like 15 things
at one time in their minds. Well, I've got to teach my children
Chinese, and Spanish, and French, and make sure they're all groomed,
make sure they're all bathed, and all this, and all that, and all
this, and all that. You know, they've got to learn to hang
with the hobos, and hang with the monarchy, they've got to
do all that. No, don't worry about it. What's most important? Fathers, well, I've got to provide
the biggest house, the biggest car, the biggest bank account,
the biggest retirement, the biggest bank, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. I've got to provide, provide, provide. How about you provide the Word
of God and show people what it means to live in poverty for
the sake of the kingdom sometimes? You think the disciples' children
had anything? You think these Thessalonian
children had a good life? They cut their heads off in front
of their parents. And they rejoiced. You joyfully accepted the plundering
of your property because you knew you had a better award,
a better reward, an abiding one, one where the moth cannot destroy
and rust doesn't kill and all of these things. This is what
we are as a people and it conflicts with everything that our culture
teaches us. And God's not called all of us
to that degree or another, but God does sustain us when it comes. Keep ourselves from idols. Keep yourselves from idols. John closes his first epistle
with that command. Where's the power in it all?
The grace of God? Yes. How is that possible? Jesus, the Lord, the Christ. We say, Lord bless, God bless,
Christ bless, Jesus the Lord, Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord saves, yay, yay. We use the word
Lord in everything. Lord is hot out here. Good Lord is a full house. Good Lord, where's everybody
at? And this is good, he's the good Lord. What are we talking
to him? You know that that's using, His
name in vain. We misapply the idea of Lord.
Do you know who the Lord was when this was written? Do you
know who the Lord of the people were when this was written? Caesar. Do you know who the Lord was
to the Jewish people when this was written? Jehovah. They rejected Christ. Paul, the
Jew of all Jews, said, Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is Jehovah. Jesus is Adonai. Jesus is God. Lord is God. Lord is a place
of deity. And Jesus' name. Lord is His rule,
His authority. This belongs to Jesus Christ.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who has the authority to lay
down His life and take it up again. Who has the authority
to call the dead out of the graves and judge them according to His
righteousness. He has the authority to save
the sinner and to give us life. He is the Lord. His very name,
though we could argue and debate about the letter J and the letter
I and all of this and Yeshua and Joshua and all that stuff,
the English translation of the Hebrew name for Jesus is Joshua. The Greek iteration of Yeshua
is Esu. The English translation from
the Greek of Esu is Jesus. He was never called that word
in His lifetime. Because He did not speak English. But Jesus in His name means Yahweh
saves. Or salvation is of the Lord.
Or some iteration of that, depending on what rabbi you talk to. The
idea is that He is the Lord God of heaven with all authority.
And that by His namesake, He saves. He reflects the salvation
of God. And the reason that it is effectual,
listen, the reason that it works, the reason that it is certain,
the reason that we can sit here today and be very complete in
the gospel of Jesus is because He is the Christ. Christ, Christos,
is the Greek word for the Hebrew word Messiah. What's it mean? The Holy One
from God. It's what Nicodemus said to Jesus
when he stood there in John chapter 3. He says, we know that you
are Messiah. He didn't use the word, but he
used the definition. We know you are the one from
God, for no one can do the things you do except he be from God
and with God." That's what Nicodemus said. And Jesus said, your confession
is false. You've said what is true, but
you can't see me because you've not been born of heaven. Think
about that. You don't really think I'm Messiah.
You're just saying it because it fits the signs. But your hope
is not in me, Nicodemus. I am the Christ. I am your righteousness. Just as Moses lifted the serpent
in the wilderness, so must I, the Son of Man, be lifted up.
Whoever is believing on the Son has eternal life. Whoever is
not believing on the Son is condemned already. You hear that, church?
Condemned already. Brothers and sisters, the Lord
Jesus Christ is the authority of His grace and is the authority
of the effectuality of our salvation. We are certain of our hope because
of who Jesus is. In Romans 16.20, Paul says the
God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. In several other epistles,
he always starts them, grace to you, grace be with you. In
2 Timothy 2, verse 1 and 2, it says, You then, my child, be
strengthened by the grace that is in Jesus Christ, and what
you have heard from Me in the presence of many witnesses, and
trust the faithful men who will be able to teach others also."
So the recipe of the grace of God effectual in our lives unto
salvation and perseverance to equip us to live according to
the calls and the commands of the Scripture, is that we learn
it and teach it, and learn it and teach it, and hear it. And
through the hearing of the words of Christ, we are able to live
as Christ has called us to live. The grace of God delivers us
from the power of sin, from the penalty of sin, transforms the
whole person, soul, mind, heart, and body. And it is a gift of
unconditional favor that ends in glorification when we will
be like the mercy seat who is Jesus Christ the Lord. Do you
believe in and on Jesus Christ this day. You've heard the Gospel. And by the power of God, we pray
that He would open your eyes to see and to believe and be
saved. Let's pray. Father, we can become very restless. We can become very distracted. So Lord, as we close our service,
as we leave this place, as we sing some hymns and some songs,
some spiritual songs, let it there be thanksgiving in our
hearts, as we remember that which was taught, as we remember the
words of this letter, as we remember each other in our prayers and
in our ministry. And Father, we are so overwhelmed
by these truths. that sometimes we are perplexed. Father, I pray You'd give clarity
of mind and thought. I pray that You would give all
of us here as we leave this day crystal clear thinking about
that which we've just heard, supernaturally. Lord, help us
to realize that our endeavors in this life, if it's not by
Your grace, are fruitless, worthless, powerless, and hopeless. But
Father, because of Your Son Jesus, because of all that He is, because
of all that He's done, because of the perfection of His work,
we are secure. We are saved. We are set apart. Lord, help us to be driven by
a pursuit of righteousness and thus prove our calling and election. Just prove the hope we have in
Christ, and just prove that we are indeed sons and daughters
of You, the Most High King. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.