Today we're going to be looking
at Paul's first letter to the church at Thessalonica. So if
you want to, be turning there in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians
1. And as you turn, I want to introduce
today's message by referring to a familiar verse, one that's
familiar, I know, to many of you from 2 Peter 1. There in
verse 10, brethren, our fellow believers, are exhorted to give
diligence to make their calling and election sure. Now, if you'll
think about it, the exhortation itself there presupposes the
truth of election, a truth that is undeniable if one believes
the Bible is true. The scriptures make it abundantly
clear that God has elected or chosen the people from all eternity
chosen or elected them to be saved in and by the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, if any doubt that who
hear this message, get a concordance when you go home or when you
have time and look up the words elect or election or chose or
chosen. And if you go through that exercise
and if you're honest with yourself, you either will concede to the
truth of God's election, or else you'll have to admit that you
just don't believe those particular passages in the Bible to be true. And I will operate under the
assumption that those listening today do believe this to be truth,
God's truth, the Word of God. And today what I want to do is
I want to begin a two-part study here from 1 Thessalonians, verses
4 through 10. In today's segment, we'll concentrate
on just three verses, verses four through six, and then we'll
look at the remainder of the passage next week. But in all
of these verses that we'll cover this week and next, what we see
here are the evidences whereby we might heed the command that
I just mentioned from 2 Peter to make our calling and election
sure. Now, today's text I said began
in verse 4, but as you'll see, verse 4 is actually the beginning
of a sentence. So look with me back up and we'll start our reading
in verse 2. Paul writes, we give thanks to
God always for you all. And then he continues, and he
says, 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 and our Father.
And as you see, as we get to our text, verse 4, we're still
in the middle of the sentence. We have here the closing of this
sentence that began back in verse 2, and if we took the parenthesis
out, it would read like this from verse 2, we give thanks
to God always for you all, The same thought then continuing
into verse 4, knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. And it's from that phrase that
I've derived the title for these two messages, knowing your election. And today's segment being part
one of two. And as you look there at verse
four, if your Bible has a cross reference like mine, you'll note
that the literal reading of that verse would be knowing brethren
beloved of God, or beloved by God, knowing your election. I think many would probably prefer
not to be confronted with that little bit of information, you
see, for I think it's natural for fallen man to look at the
sentence arrangement there by the King James translators and
just choose to interpret it to mean your election of God. In other words, your choosing
of him rather than the other way around. As I've already mentioned,
if you'll go through the exercise and look up the passages on election,
you'll see that would be totally contradictory to all of God's
Word because it makes it very clear that the choosing is God's
choosing, the election of a people unto salvation in Christ. Just
to quickly set aside that argument, we could go so many places, but
turn back just a few pages to Ephesians chapter 1. Here in
the letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul writes concerning God's
choosing of a people. In verse 3 he says, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. according as he, that is God
the Father, hath chosen us in him, God the Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him, in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself According to your free will choice? No.
It says, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. We could go many other places,
but you can see from this one passage, it's clear that God
the Father chose a people in Jesus Christ, God the Son, to
be redeemed. He chose them to be saved eternally. Now, to begin with, let's be
clear that any consideration of God's election of a particular
people would be meaningless apart from a consideration of what
they're chosen for or to. If I come up to you and I say,
hey, I've been chosen, well, it begs the question, for what
or to what? It would carry no meaning without
that. And so what we see here clearly
is that we must consider election unto salvation, that it is a
choosing unto salvation in and by the redemptive work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, as we read in Ephesians,
in whom we have redemption, Not just an attempt made, but a price
paid by his shed blood. Well, look with me in verse 5
of 1 Thessalonians. Our passage continues, and he
says, For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also
in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye
know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. Now,
notice how verse 5 begins. It begins with that word for,
and that means because. So Paul is saying, we know you
to be beloved of God. We know your election because,
and he proceeds from here, this point, through verse 10, giving
the evidences whereby he is able to say he knows their election. And that's what we're going to
focus on in these two messages. And I want you to notice the
first thing from verse 5 is there, is that the gospel comes to the
elect of God. He says, for our gospel came,
not unto you in word only, but also in power and so forth. But
it comes to the elect of God. All of God's elect and each and
every generation are providentially brought to hear God's gospel. And Paul calls it our gospel. He says our gospel. comes unto
you. Well hold your spot there and
let's go back to Acts 17 and look at the record of when Paul
first delivered the gospel to the Thessalonians in his visit
there. Acts 17 Paul and Silas and Timothy had
just left Philippi, and we read in verse 1, Now when they had
passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica,
where was the synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner
was, he went in unto them, and as his manner was, three Sabbath
days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, and as his manner
was, opening and alleging that the Christ, now there's a definite
article in the Greek, the Christ, in other words he's saying the
Christ I'm preaching to you, not the Messiah that you Jews,
the ones he's speaking to, were expecting to set up an earthly
kingdom, but the Christ must needs have suffered and risen
again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach unto
you is the Christ." Again, the definite article. You see, the
gospel sets forth the gospel that shows one to be one of God's
elect, that comes unto God's elect. It sets forth more than
just the mere historical fact that Christ died and rose again.
As we see here, it sets forth the necessity of it, how he must
needs have died and risen again. He came to Diocese to save a
people, the elect of God, and he had to rise again. He had
to come out of that grave because God the Father is just. And justice
was satisfied by what he accomplished in his life and death. Righteousness. Perfect satisfaction before the
justice of God. Satisfaction in precept, you
see, for he obeyed. He walked on this earth without
sin. He obeyed the law perfectly. And yet, he needed no righteousness
for himself, he came for a people. A people that he, it's recorded
elsewhere in scripture, he says, Father, those that you gave me
out of the world, the elect. And he came for them, but they
were fallen humanity. They were, as we all were, sinners,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. They
were anything but righteous before God, and so justice had to be
satisfied in that the penalty had to be paid before the bar
of God's justice. A sin against an infinitely holy
God, and it took the infinitely valuable blood of the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that is the gospel, our gospel,
Paul calls it, that comes to each and every one of God's elect
in each and every generation. And we see that it's that very
specific message that comes. But listen, we also see here
to God's elect, it doesn't just come to the physical air. Here
in verse 5, he says, We know your election now, for our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but in power and in the Holy
Ghost and in much assurance. You see, God's elect are given
spiritual ears. In Matthew 13, there's a discourse
there between our Lord and the disciples where they said, why
do you speak in parables? And he said, because it's given
to some not to know the mysteries of the kingdom. That is this
reign of grace that's established by Christ's righteousness at
the cross. As we heard in the 10 o'clock
hour, Christ said, you don't believe on me because you're
not my sheep. It's not given. In other words,
he's saying some are not chosen to be saved unto salvation. In verse 13, he finished that
by saying, he spoke to them in parables because they seeing,
meaning with a physical eye, they seeing, see not, and hearing
with a physical ear, and hearing, they hear not. Neither do they
understand, but he goes on in verse 16 in Matthew 13, he says,
but blessed are your eyes. We must have eyes that are blessed.
In other words, we must be given spiritual eyes. He says, blessed
are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. You
see, there's a miraculous giving of spiritual life, a new birth,
whereby God's people gain the faculties of life. of spiritual
life, spiritual eyes and spiritual ears, so that the gospel then
comes to them, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy
Ghost and in much assurance. So let's consider those three
things this morning. The gospel comes to God's elect
in power. As you hear me often quote, as
Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 1, 16 and 17, the gospel This specific message, Paul's,
the gospel, he says, our gospel that comes to God's elect. It's
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And
he says in verse 17, for, or because, therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. So the gospel, you see, when
made effectual to a sinner is life-giving. The Scripture calls
it a quickening word. It's the word of regeneration.
And it comes in power then to God's elect. And in that power,
there's a revelation. Some things reveal that they
otherwise would be totally blind to when it comes to them in power. And what is it that's revealed?
The righteousness of God. Now, the Gospel comes to God's
elect then in power. But it says that also the gospel
comes to God's elect in the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit. I think
that conjures up in most natural minds the idea of, well, do I
really feel the Spirit? A mystical thing, an emotional
thing. And we know that religions all
over this world of all sorts, sizes, and shapes, all have some
element of that sense of something going on within them. But we
do not have to rely on mysticism. You see, our Lord taught about
what it means for the gospel to come in the Holy Ghost or
Holy Spirit when he described for us the work of the Spirit. In John 16, when he's talking
to his disciples, he says, I'm going to go away. I must go away.
And so I'll send a comforter. He's referring to the Holy Spirit.
And I believe there he's speaking to the world of God's elect. He's telling his disciples that
this spirit would come and it's going to reprove. The word reprove
means convict or convince the world. And I think he's saying
not just now, not just you Jewish disciples here, but as is taught
elsewhere, spiritual Israel. Just as national Israel was chosen
as a nation to be delivered in order to bring the Messiah through
them for that specific time under the old covenant, he's saying,
I'm speaking of spiritual Israel, a chosen people out of every
nation. And that's what I think he means
when he says he's sending the Spirit to reprove the world.
And here's what he says in verse 8. He says, And when he, speaking
of the Holy Spirit, is come, he will reprove, that is, convince
or convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now, if it takes a miraculous
work of God's Spirit to convince me of sin, then it has to be
speaking of a sin that otherwise is foreign to me, that I'm totally
unaware of. You know, as you think of a little
toddler with his hand caught in the proverbial cookie jar,
if he's been told to not go there, and that look on his face or
her face like, I've been caught, you know right away that we're
born with a conscience. We know right and wrong. So we're not talking here of
sins of immorality. We're not talking about stealing
and killing and murder. You see, those are things that
we're born with a conscience. We know those things to be sin.
But this is a sin that requires a miraculous work. It requires
God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to convince us of. And I believe
there it's talking about what the Scripture calls the deceivableness
of unrighteousness. That is, our imagining that something
other than or in addition to the one righteousness, unrighteousness,
would find me favored by a God or remove his wrath, something
that I imagine is done by me or in me or through me. He says
he'll convince the world. Now, if the gospel comes to you
in the Holy Ghost, then here's the work of the Holy Ghost. He'll
convince you of righteousness, that very satisfaction that Christ
made, where we see why and how he must needs have suffered and
died and risen again. of the perfect satisfaction that
our Lord made, and of judgment. He will convince his people that
sins were fully judged there at the cross of Calvary, that
Satan and sin, he was totally victorious over them, and that
this righteousness is the standard of judgment. As I'm convinced,
see, of the sin of having been ignorant of it and not submitted
to that righteousness, but looking for something other than that,
unrighteousness. You see how all those fit together. So if the gospel comes to you
in the Holy Spirit, in the Holy Ghost, as it does to each and
every one of God's elect in God's time, The Spirit will have convinced
you of sin and righteousness and judgment. Now back in verse
5, we see here that the gospel comes to God's elect. It comes
to them not only in power and in the Holy Ghost, but in much
assurance. You see, if your gospel, we know
there's only one true gospel, but the Bible speaks of many
false gospels. Your gospel, gospel means good
news, so what you presume to be good news concerning how God
saves sinners, that's your gospel, that's my gospel. If it's not one in which you
have every reason to be fully assured, then we can deduce from
this passage here that we have no warrant, not at this time,
to consider ourselves to be one of God's sheep, that is, one
of his chosen ones, the elect, because the gospel comes to God's
elect in full assurance. You see, to truly trust in Christ
is to trust in one who cannot fail. He's the God-man, and he
did not fail. You remember the angel of the
Lord told Joseph concerning his wife Mary, he said, she'll bring
forth a son, conceived not by you, Joseph, but by the Holy
Spirit. It'll be a God-man." And he said,
Joseph, you're to call His name Jesus. That means God who saves,
Jehovah, our Savior. He said, you're to call His name
Jesus, for He shall save His people. Those that he prayed
to God the Father and said, those you've given me out of the world,
the elect, he shall save them from their sins, Matthew 1.21.
You know, over the ages, I think countless religious folks have
expressed this thought. They'll say, well, it's not Christ
that I doubt, but it's me, it's my faith or my faithfulness that
I worry about. Well, listen, if you worry whether
your faith or your faithfulness will measure up, then hear me,
the problem isn't really with the degree of your faith or the
quality of your faith, but the object of your faith. You're
not looking to Christ alone, and you really do have a lot
to worry about if those are your sentiments. You see, such sentiments
are held by those who have yet to turn to Christ for all of
their salvation and repent of the sin that deceives us all,
of having imagined that salvation is in some way to some degree
conditioned on something that proceeds from me, a sinner. And
when such thoughts persist then, they give evidence of one of
two things, that either one, God's gospel The one wherein
his righteousness is revealed, you see, because it comes in
power. God's gospel has just not come your way yet, perhaps. Or secondly, if it has, it has
not come in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. You see, focusing on our own
failings is not trusting in Christ alone because he cannot fail.
And that suggests that there's yet to be a convincing by God's
spirit of that sin that we're all deceived by, of imagining
that salvation's conditioned on us, the religion of works. At least in some small way, we
will say, you know, on our faith or my faithfulness, my perseverance,
whatever it is. That's not the faith of God's
elect that we see here from the passage in 1 Thessalonians. You
see, to trust in Christ and having been convinced of his righteousness,
as my only hope, as the only ground of my salvation, a righteousness
that I cannot merit and one that has to be freely put upon me,
imputed to me as the scriptural word. It has to be laid to my
account in the same way that my sins were laid to Christ's
account. He died for sins he had no part
whatsoever in producing. He died for the demerit of all
my sins, past, present, and future, and the great exchange that takes
place is I end up having a righteousness I had no part in producing, you
see, that I have the very merit of what he accomplished put to
me. You see, that's what it is to
truly trust in Christ, is to be banking on that and nothing
else whatsoever, is to put all our confidence in him. The Scripture
uses the phrase, and have no confidence in the flesh. That
means the work of our own hand. We can have full assurance, see,
that he could not fail, and he did not fail to do what he came
to do. Remember on the Sermon on the
Mount, he said, I came to fulfill the law perfectly, every jot
and tittle, dotting every I, crossing every T. The Scripture
tells us he came, as we read in Ephesians 1, to redeem a people. the elect of God to save his
people from their sins. And the God-man cannot and did
not fail. As we've already seen, the record
of Paul's first visit to Thessalonica was recorded there in Acts 17.
And in that chapter, we learn that when he left Thessalonica,
he went on to Berea. And from Berea, he went on to
Athens. And there in Athens, he preached his famous sermon
on Mars Hill. And at the end of the chapter,
Acts 17, in verses 30 and 31, as we heard again even this morning,
Paul concluded by saying that, God now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness, whose righteousness? By that man whom
he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance. unto all
men, and that he raised him from the dead." You know, if the fact
of the resurrection were tried in a court of law, it would be
proven without fail in a civil court. There were hundreds who
witnessed Christ after his resurrection. And so, here we have the testimony
before all men that he lived. You see, righteousness demands
life, Romans 5.21. Just as sin reigns unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life.
Whose righteousness? By Jesus Christ our Lord. It
got the job done. He's given assurance thereby
to all men. That's the standard by which
you're going to be judged. Christ didn't live and die and
rise again for himself, but he did it for a people, the elect
of God. They shall likewise live." It
cannot fail. And when it pleases God, then
in each successive generation, they are granted not only eternal
life, but spiritual life. And they come to Him in full
assurance of faith. Now notice there, back in 1 Thessalonians,
at the end of verse 5, chapter 1, Paul adds this little phrase,
he says, as you know what manner of men we were among you for
your sake. It's true that Paul and Silas
and Timothy, they conducted themselves honorably when they were at Thessalonica.
We see something of that as the letter continues into chapter
2. If you look down at verse 10, we read, ye are witnesses
and God also, how holy, that means holy like, and justly and
unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe." And
so we know that sense of that is true, but as you look at the
context of chapter 1, and in particular verse 5, I think that
what we have being expressed in this phrase, when he says,
you know what manner of men we were among you, for your sake,
is an expansion upon the evidence of how these believers did not
receive the gospel in word only. as if it were merely the words
of men. I think Paul is conveying, as he did to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians 2, when he said, And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Look in chapter
2, as I mentioned already, and look at verse 2, as he continues
in the letter here, and he says, after that we had suffered before
and were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi. They
had been thrown in jail, now Paul and Silas in Philippi, and
they moved on just before going to Thessalonica. And he says,
We were bold in our God to speak unto you in Thessalonica the
gospel of God with much contention. For our exhortation was not of
deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, But as we were allowed
of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak,
not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For
neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak
of covetousness. God is witness, for nor of men
sought we glory. neither of you nor yet of others,"
and he goes on. And then look down at verse 13.
He says, "...for this cause also thank ye God without ceasing,
because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of
us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in
truth the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you
that believe." The message of God's truth, the gospel, that
was delivered to these elect believers in Thessalonica, it
was not diluted. It was not camouflaged in order
to make it more palatable to our natural, our fallen natures. You see, naturally, we desire
some dignity to remain with man, at least in some small way. We
desire that there be a basis upon which we as sinners might
boast of playing a part in our own salvation. Now, many who
hear that say, well, I never thought that before. I didn't
think that I sincerely was approaching God looking for something that
I could brag about. I didn't say that you did brag
or boast. I said we like to know there's
a basis upon which we could. You know, in Ephesians 2.8.9,
he says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. It's not
of works, lest any man should boast. That is, unless there
be a basis whatsoever upon which you would have grounds to boast.
And listen, if your decision to accept Jesus, you're inviting
him into your heart or life. If that makes the difference
in whether you go to heaven or not, Whether you brag about it
or not, you have every reason to boast, for that's the crowning
event in your mind of how you can save yourself. And all that
you may credit Christ with doing is nothing more than some sort
of prerequisite that just makes it possible for you to cut the
bargain, for you to do the deal to make yourself saved. And God won't have it. You see,
the fence of the cross is not removed from the message whereby
God's sheep are brought to see their desperate need for mercy.
To see their hopelessness outside of the mercy and grace and having
the merit of what Christ accomplished, His righteousness, put to my
account. And listen, so their being so
persuaded was not the product of man's eloquence. Our power
of persuasion. Paul said, you know, we persuade
men, knowing the fear of the Lord. But when the gospel comes
to God's elect in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance,
it's not the product of man's persuasion. It's the product
of what God's Spirit can and does effectually work in the
center, as he ultimately does to each one of the objects of
God's everlasting love, his elect. We'll look at verse 6. He continues and he says, And
ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received
the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost. In
1 Corinthians 11, Paul said, Be ye followers of me, even as
I also am of Christ. And I think he's speaking to
them in a like kind here of their oneness and their like-mindedness
in Christ. He's noting how the Thessalonians
were drawn to follow them and the Lord, as you see there, for
they've embraced the same gospel message. There in verse 6, we read how
they received the word in much affliction. That means in tribulation,
trouble. I want you to consider the conditions.
We'll look just for a moment that these believers in Thessalonica
received the gospel message. We won't go there in the interest
of time, but had we continued our reading in Acts 17, we'd
see that these believers had consorted, it said. That means
they identified with Paul and Silas and Timothy and their message. And then it says that there were
these unbelieving Jews who were moved with envy and they went
and they gathered together a mob and they set the city in an uproar
and they said, these that have come here have turned the world
upside down, accusing them of inciting civil disorder and on
to accuse them of sedition, talking about how falsely accusing them
of calling Jesus a king that would rival Caesar to take over
his throne. Now, we see at the end of that,
the passage says, and the people were very troubled. They identified
with this gospel. They received the word in much
affliction, and yet they were being falsely accused. If they
were identifying with these guys, these guys, I mean, They were
close to being hanged probably, or however they were going to
kill them back then, because they were being accused of being
trying to undermine the throne of Caesar. Well, I think as you
can see already from the tenor of my message, I believe this
is relevant to us today, this passage, as it is in every day. And so I think it's intended
to be instructive and portray the evidences whereby the elect
of God in each and every generation may be identified." Now, I'm
going to cover this fact more next week, but just if you look
down real quickly at verse 7 and 8, you see there the word in
samples. He said, you were in samples. That means you're a
dye, a stamp, a pattern. In other words, you possess the
identifying characteristics of all that believe. in Macedonia
and Achaia. And that's just one of the reasons
I believe that all of these descriptions are relevant to us today, including
the one we're looking here in verse 6. We don't receive the
Word in much affliction in exactly the same way the Thessalonians
did. But there's a sense, you know, we're all true believers.
All those for whom Christ merited that work of faith for them,
They receive it in much affliction. They accuse Paul and Silas of
turning their world upside down, but the reality is that's what
happens. That happens in the heart of
the believer. That's why God calls on men everywhere
to repent, as I referenced a moment ago. The gospel, when received,
requires of us. It is totally polar opposite,
180 degrees different from what we imagine. We discover that
God and how he saves sinners, his gospel, you see, is totally
a reversal of the way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end
thereof is death, Proverbs 16.25. Now, concluding that you've been
so tragically mistaken, Having revealed unto you that the living
and true God and his way of salvation is altogether different than
you had imagined is an upheaval. And the ramifications are unsettling,
they're troubling. You know, the scripture calls
our gospel a bittersweet gospel. And the bitter aspect of it is
such that we know that none of us would have anything to do
with it if God didn't bring us the gospel in power and in the
Holy Ghost and in much assurance, if it wasn't a work of God. We
discover, see, not only that we're in error, but we discover
the evil of having presumed that a thrice holy God would accept
me, a sinner, based upon something that proceeds from me, a sinner. When, listen, it took the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. Now that's evil. And that's what God's elect are
brought to repent of. And in that process, we discover
that our like-minded fellow religionists, our friends, our family, that
they are likewise deceived. And we can relate the gospel
to them, but we can't do the work of God's Spirit. And it
saddens us. Consider what Christ said in
Matthew 10. I used to read these words, but
before I really heard the gospel, you know, I think they rang pretty
hollow. He said, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. He said, I cannot send peace,
but a sword. He said, For I come to set a
man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against
her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of his own
household. And he that loveth father or mother more than me
is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than
me is not worthy of me." You see, God's elect do receive the
Word in much affliction. But look at the end of verse
6. They also receive it with joy of the Holy Ghost. You know,
when you think about verses 5 and 6 together, I'm reminded of what
Paul said in Romans 14. There, God, through the Apostle,
says, the kingdom of God, this reign of grace, is righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. You see, to be translated out
of darkness into the marvelous light of His kingdom, is to have
that righteousness revealed to us under the preaching of the
gospel. The kingdom of God is righteousness. And thereby we
discover the only way that reconciliation can be made between a holy God
and a sinner, how peace on earth indeed is made. The kingdom of
God is peace. And in that peace we have much
assurance, you see. We're brought to rejoice in great
joy. It is a bitter gospel, but it's
a sweet gospel. Think of how wonderful it is
for one to discover that they have a terminal disease, that
they have a hopeless condition, but to also discover that when
it comes to the gospel, using that analogy, that that news
is never, ever delivered. apart from knowing that a wonderful
cure has been provided. You discover a reality of how
hopeless you were, and at the same time, you discover that
a cure has been provided for you that you didn't desire, that
you didn't seek, that you were simply chosen unto, that was
bought for you by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, that's good news. That's joy and great cause for
rejoicing. Well, I begin today noting how
believers are exhorted to give diligence, to make their calling
in election sure. And there, in that passage, it
says brethren. It's talking about believers.
But what about those who just aren't sure yet about this message,
who've yet to embrace it? You know, as you hear this for
the first time, like most of us, I suspect, People hear it
and they hear what seems to be an unfair premise to them. They're
confronted, see, with the clear scriptural assertions that they
elect, those chosen by God, and they alone, for whom Christ lived
and died, they shall be saved. And I know from my own experience
that when God in his providence calls me to start seeing in the
scripture that, hmm, I can't deny this, perhaps this is true,
And I actually began to see the undeniable fact that the Bible
teaches that God chose a particular people to be saved. I asked the
same question I think most ask. Well, if it is true, as I was
beginning to be persuaded it was, how do I know if I'm one
of his elect, one of the chosen ones? And you know, there's no
problem with that question unless it's asked in a vacuum. That
is, we must remember that election is unto something, unto salvation
in and by Christ, based solely on the work he accomplished in
his life and death. And we see in Scripture that
the Gospel message is always accompanied with God's command
to believe it. We're told to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. But the Scriptures also reveal
to us that as sinners we will not do so. unless the Holy Spirit
gives us life, faith, and repentance. Listen, evidences that manifest
themselves without fail at some point in each elect sinner's
heart. Now, how can I say that without
fail? Because it's been purchased for them by the God-man at the
cross of Calvary. He established a righteousness
for a people and it demands their life. And so thereby, by that
spiritual life, we see and embrace a desperate need for that which
he alone accomplished in satisfaction to justice as a substitute for
the elect. The command is not to believe
you're one of the elect. You know, if that command, at
least if it's given in isolation, might prompt one to seek to determine
some means whether or not they're chosen, which usually causes
us to focus on, am I worthy, apart from the gospel evidences
of repentance and faith, belief in the truth of God's gospel.
Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer just prior to going on
to Thessalonica, he said, what must I do to be saved? Their
answer in essence said, there's nothing you can do. You've got
to believe on another. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. The gospel message itself excludes
any notion that it is your believing that does the saving. Listen,
the gospel of grace, necessitates the truth of election. If God
didn't choose a people of his own sovereign pleasure and will,
then what's left? Well, there's got to be something
found in me, discovered about me, or done by me, and that's
not grace, that's works. I read recently where grace excludes
any notion of worthiness in the sinner, and I like that. Anyway,
the gospel we're commanded to believe, it reveals the righteousness
of another. the impeccable righteousness
of Christ. I'll close with this illustration.
One old writer was illustrating the wrong reasoning of so many
when they first give consideration to the doctrine of election.
And he described it like this. He said, a man is starving for
food. He's going to die if he doesn't eat. And providentially,
someone places a plate of food there in front of him. Now, does
this man who's dying of hunger now, does he halt and say, well,
I just don't think I'll eat it because I'm not sure if it was
intended for me? Well, if he didn't eat it, most
of us would say, you fool. Someone was kind enough to bring
the food your way and though you're starving to death, you
wouldn't have it. Now, you see, he would eat unless he had lost
his mind. And why would he eat? Because
he's starving. He's hungry. He wants to live. Now listen, that brings us to
the real issue. Are you hungry for this food,
the bread of life, Christ's person and redemptive work as it's set
forth in the gospel? Do you see, as the Thessalonians
were able to see, the necessity of Christ's life and death on
the cross? As Paul had taught them, he said, he must needs
die and be raised again. Must you have it? Will anything
else suffice for you? Listen, it won't, not if you've
been convinced of sin and righteousness and judgment. Has God turned
your world upside down, showing you your desperate need for this
righteousness, one you can't produce, one you can't even do
anything to acquire or procure? You need real mercy. And if so,
if God has been so pleased to do that, then eat, thank God
for bringing you, drawing you in the day of his power to the
table. You see, for only the elect sit
at that table and partake of the bread of life. Christ put
it this way in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, blessed,
eternally blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. So the question is, are you hungry
for the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel? the satisfaction
Christ alone rendered at the cross of Calvary for each and
every one of the objects of God's everlasting love. Now, if so,
if you're hungry for that, sit down and eat. Eat at the table
of God's elect, for thereby you can know your election. Thank you, Randy. Let's stand
and thank him.