I would direct your attention
to 1 Thessalonians 1, and the key text in our study, though
we shall range backwards and forwards throughout the entire
chapter, the key text in our study is verses 4 and 5. Knowing, brethren beloved of
God, your election, how that our gospel came not unto you
in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in
much assurance. Outside of the first verse, which
is a typical Pauline salutation, a greeting in which he takes
up the common literary form of his day and sanctifies it, making
it a vehicle of conveying spiritual truth, outside, I say, of that
first verse, The rest of the chapter, verses 2 to 10, are
very much similar to Ephesians 1, verses 3 to 15, in that they
form a record of Paul's praise to God for that which the grace
of God had wrought in the lives of the people of God at Thessalonica. He says we give thanks to God
always for you, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing, and everything that follows is in a sense Paul
pulling back the veil or opening the door of his prayer and praise
closet and saying, when I'm alone with God and I think of you,
these are the things for which I give thanks to God. Now it
is in the midst of this record of his own praise to God for
the Thessalonians that we have this statement, knowing brethren
beloved of God your election how that our gospel came not
unto you in word only but also in power. In the course of his
praise he thanks God for this conviction that he has on their
behalf that they are the elect of God. He has this conviction
that there at Thessalonica is a body of people who were loved
of God from all eternity. So you notice the close proximity
of beloved of God and election, His distinguishing particular
redemptive love, which is always parallel to His sovereign gracious
choice of a great multitude of individuals unto life and salvation. It is in the midst of this prayer
of praise that he speaks of his confidence that they are indeed
God's elect. Now, the question we want to
ask is this, what convinced him that they were the elect of God?
Was it because God had allowed Paul to ascend to his throne
where the role of his elect is kept and somehow leaf through
the pages until he found the names of some of the people at
Thessalonica? Why, you say, of course not.
The thought is absurd, if not blasphemous. Well then, what
convinced him that they were the elect of God? Well, you'll
notice that his conviction that they were the elect of God was
rooted in the fact that the gospel had come to them in a certain
way. See the connection between verses 4 and 5? Knowing, brethren
beloved of God, your election, how that our gospel came not
unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit,
and in much assurance. And you see, I trust the connection
in his thinking. He was convinced of their election
of God because the gospel came to them in power. The gospel came to them in the
energy of the Holy Ghost. It came to them in much assurance. Now, that leads to another question.
How did he know the gospel came to them in power? Well, there's
only one way Paul could know it, and only one way you can
know it. It's in terms of the effect that the gospel produced
in their lives. And the whole key to that is
found in the next verse. Notice. And ye became. Now put the two phrases together.
Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election, how that
the gospel came and ye became. Whenever the gospel comes in
power, We become something that only the power of the gospel
can produce. 1 Corinthians 4.20 states, the
kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. You see, the gospel
not only announces and promises an application of divine forgiveness
to all who believe, but it also announces and promises an operation
of divine power upon all who believe. And those two are always
together. Let me give them to you again.
The gospel not only comes promising and announcing an application
of divine forgiveness. He that believeth is not condemned. That's the gospel. He that believeth
is not condemned. But it not only announces and
promises an application of divine forgiveness, but it announces
and promises an operation of divine power. If any man be in
Christ, he is a new creation. And one of the saddest things
in the professing evangelical church today is multitudes of
people who say, they wouldn't say, I'm elect of God, that would
be a naughty word to them. But they would say, I'm certainly
loved of God and I'm certainly a Christian. And you say, what
makes you think you're a Christian? They say, why, I have believed
the word of the gospel. But you can look almost in vain
for any evidence that they've experienced the power of the
gospel. All right, having established
the principle in the text, now I press a question upon your
conscience as you sit here in the presence of God. The question
is, has the gospel come to you in word and in power? Now, see, we've been dealing
with the Thessalonians. That's pretty easy business. We can be quite
comfortable. But now I press the question
upon your conscience. Has the gospel come to you in
word and in power? If it has, it will produce in
you. You will become what it produced
in the Thessalonians. And I remind you, as we enter
into a period of what will be intense personal examination,
that it's only the counterfeit which suffers from close scrutiny. Go to the bank to deposit some
money tomorrow morning and place on the teller's little shelf
five $20 bills. And if as he's collecting them
from you and about to check your slip and stamp it and pass it
back that $100 has been put into your checking account, he comes
to the fifth and he looks at it a minute and says, Mr. Smith,
excuse me a minute, I'm not quite sure that this is the real thing. The only thing that stands to
suffer is the counterfeit. If that's the real thing, he
can look at it under a magnifying glass, he can scrutinize it,
he can have it tested. All it can do is assure you that
of the five, that really is the real thing, if it is the real
thing. It's only the counterfeit that stands to suffer from close
examination. Do some of you already find yourselves
drawing back, saying, oh no, no, no, don't put that under
the magnifying glass, I know it's real. Don't do that, my friend. You have a solemn obligation,
in the words of 2 Corinthians 13, 5, to examine yourself, to
prove yourself, whether you be in the faith, and I know of no
better chapter in all the word of God to do it with than the
chapter before us. All right? Having then established
the principle that's in the text, let us now proceed. First of
all, what was the evidence that the gospel had come in power?
Well, the first evidence was that there was the impartation
of the three basic Christian virtues. Look at verse 3. We
give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you
in our prayers, remembering without ceasing three things. Your work
of faith, that is, work which flowed out of the grace of faith. Your labor of love, that is,
labor that flowed out of the grace of love. and your patience
of hope that is patience or endurance which flowed out of your hope
now you see it was the presence of these three fundamental Christian
virtues, of which Paul speaks in another place saying, now
abide of these three, faith, hope and love. The greatest of
these is love. This trinity of Christian virtues
that comes out in no fewer than probably about ten passages in
the New Testament, they are the fundamental graces of a true
Christian. And it was the presence of these
graces which were an evidence to Paul that the gospel had come
in power, and because it came in power, he knew them to be
the elect of God. So then, we must understand something
of what these virtues are and then ask, are they present and
resident in me? First of all, he says, your work
of faith. That is, A life, the characteristic of
which was works that constantly bore witness to the fact that
the Thessalonians were men and women of faith. And in this sense,
the most simple definition I know of faith is this. It is that
hand that grasps the unseen world of spiritual reality. the hand that grasps the unseen
world of spiritual reality. Initially it is saving faith
that reaches out to lay hold of Jesus Christ as the only hope
of forgiveness, that lays hold of Him in the sufficiency of
His person and work as a mediator. But saving faith always gives
birth to the disposition of faith, so that the man who is justified
by faith begins to walk by faith. The totality of his life begins
to be regulated. by the unseen world of spiritual
reality. He can say with the Apostle Paul
in 2 Corinthians 4.18, we look not on the things that are seen,
but on the things that are not seen. For the things that are
seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 5.7, we walk by faith and not by sight. See the
contrast? He said, we are not governed
by the things that we see and touch, though we live amongst
them and partake of them. No, no. He says our whole perspective
is governed by the things that we do not see. Is that a description
of your life? That's the question you must
ask of yourself. Knowing, brethren beloved of God, our gospel came
to you in power because it's nothing but the gospel attended
by the power of the Holy Ghost that can take creatures like
you and me, whose affections are wedded to the earth and to
the flesh and to the world of sense and time, and wrench us
loose from that, and fix all of our deepest longing And all
of the most fundamental, regulative principles of life, fix them
and anchor them and attach them to the world of unseen spiritual
reality. But then we must hurry on. The
second fundamental grace, he says, is love. There was the
work that flowed out of your faith, your energies being dispensed
to values that are heavenly and eternal. But he says, and he
uses a more intensive word, there was your labor of love. This
is labor unto pain and unto agony. And he says that which produced
it was love. And the best little working definition
of love for our use tonight that I know is this, that selfless
affection which seeks the delight of its object at personal cost. Love seeketh not its own. If ye love me, ye will keep my
commandments." Here they were laboring and toiling for whom
and for what? For the Savior whom they had
come to know through the preaching of the gospel. And when people
saw them laboring in enterprises, even unto agony, and they asked
them, what in the world are you doing this for? What kind of
return do you get? They say, the smile of my Savior.
Someone says, yeah, that doesn't put bread on the table. Why are you doing that? Ah, for
the approval of my Lord. Yeah, but let's be practical. Ah, they said, look, this is
the most practical thing in all the world. Live or die, I'm His. He's mine. That's all that matters. You see, that was the thing that
Paul saw in them in those early days amongst them, and apparently
reports began to filter back that they were continuing to
be motivated by this love for the Savior. Love that produced
labor for Him. This is one of the mysteries
of the gospel that separates it from all false religions.
that the more pure is our understanding of the freeness of God's grace,
the more diligently we'll labor to please the One who gives that
grace. All false religions say, labor
and toil to elicit His favor. The Christian message is, embrace
His favor, though undeserving, and then labor to prove your
love. to the one who has favored you. Now is that grace operative in
your breast tonight? A love for the Savior that drives
you, that motivates you to do things that worldlings see and
scratch their head and say, what in God's name is wrong with that
fellow? Why does that for no return?
He could be doing this, he could be doing that. What makes him
tick? The answer should be, the love
of Christ constraineth me. That's it. The gospel, when it
comes in power, not only proclaims the love of God to sinners, but
it implants love to God in the breast of the sinner, so that
freely forgiven, He fervently loves. Is that true of you? Peter
had no qualms about describing Christians in this beautiful
little phrase, whom having not seen, we love. That's the description of a Christian.
He loves an unseen Christ. And you know how you know if
you love him? Jesus said there's one way to know that you love
him. If you love me, he will keep my command. And what is
the primary commandment he gives? He says, love those who say they
love me. Ah, that's where love is put
to the test. I've met some people who can sing lovely songs about
loving Jesus, and who can give lovely testimonies about loving
Jesus, but you know what he says? He says, if you really love me,
here's the proof. Here's one of my imperfect disciples and
followers, and I'm going to put him right next to you, so you
can see all his imperfections, now love him. And John says,
if you don't love your brother whom you see, how can you love
God whom you don't see? Isn't the Lord gracious to hedge
us up from our sneaky, devious ways? We sit around really thinking,
boy, we really are loving the Lord with great fervor and immense
expanse and depth. And the Lord plunks one of his
imperfect children right next to him and says, alright, now
you really love me? Now you get along with that fellow. Yeah,
but Lord, he, and Lord says, I know all about him. I know
a lot more you don't know. But you love him. You love him. This is the love of God that
we keep his commandments. And what is his commandment?
That you love one another. You see that cyclical reasoning
of John in the book of 1 John. He that saith, I know God, and
loveth not, is a liar. He that loveth not, knoweth not
God, for God is love. And how is love shown? John tells
us. If you see your brother have
need, and shut up the bowels of your compassion, how dwelleth
the love of God in you? You see, you don't need to do
like some mean, depraved creature might do when he sees a man in
need. Walk over and stomp on him. The Lord says, just look
at him in his need. and fail to open up your heart
and respond to that need according to your ability. And God says,
how does the love of God dwell in you? You see, God's love is
never a dormant principle within his own breast. And when he implants
it in ours, it's never a dormant principle to be looked at and
admired like some beautiful diamond behind the glass. Or like the
beautiful crown of some queen or king that's put on display
for people to look in at it. No, no, the love of God is always
moving outward to its objects. God so loved the world that He
gave. Hereby know, we love, that He
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And though the
degree is never the same, and though the quantity is never
the same, the quality of love implanted in the heart of a man
or woman who receives the gospel in power is the same as God's
love. Quantitatively, never the same. Extensively, purity, never the
same. But the quality, it's the same
kind of love. It responds to the need of the
brother of the sister. Is that grace of love to God,
the triune God, and to God's people active within your breast?
moving you to bear with their weaknesses? In the words of Peter,
to cover a multitude of sins? Do you profess to love God while
your eyes are two huge magnifying glasses three inches thick, focused
upon every fault of your brethren? No, love is a wonderful way of
putting blinders on the eyes. seeing the fault and saying,
Lord, it's sin. But I'm so encompassed with sin,
not the kind of sin that needs discipline. No, that's another
whole subject. But Peter says it covers the multitude of sins,
those areas in all of us that yet need the sanctifying grace
of God. And then he says there was their
patience of hope. That is an endurance in the midst
of hardship rooted in hope, that fervent yearning, confident expectation,
and patient waiting for the promised blessings of a completed salvation. And he said that hope put within
their breasts when they were called of God is what produced
endurance. They were confident that the
best was yet to come. There's a new worldliness invading
the church in some good reform circles. They say, look, the
action's here and now. Let's not talk about heaven by
and by. Let's roll up our sleeves and
get with the issues now. Well, there's an element of proper
nowness about the gospel. My friend, if I have any acquaintance
with the New Testament, again and again, the whole perspective
is that the best is yet to come. And the best we'll ever see down
here is a mess. Yes. Now, I don't have the pessimism
that says there's nothing else to expect the Lord to do. Let's
just dig a rock, lay down in it and look up and say, even
so come Lord Jesus. I don't believe that's the way
that prayer was prayed in Revelation. It was prayed by a man who in
the midst of suffering was encouraging suffering Christians. And how
did he encourage them? By showing from one perspective
and another that the Lord Jesus is King. All his enemies shall
be vanquished and be laid at his feet. Whether he shows them
as the lamb in the midst of the throne who prevails to open the
book? Whether he shows them as coming
upon his white charger and his vesture dipped in blood? What's
the whole perspective of the book of the Revelation? The triumph
of the Son of God over all his enemies, seen and unseen. So I'm not speaking now of the
pessimism that says we can't expect to see the gospel capture
perhaps even whole communities and influence whole nations.
No, I'm not saying that. But I'm saying even if there
will be such mighty triumphs as will astound us, the Bible
teaches that the best down here will always be a mess compared
to what we'll have up there. Otherwise you'd get too settled. Yes, you would. And so the hope within the breast
of the Christian is a very real thing. I ask you tonight, is
that hope within your breast? Is your life governed by it?
Your whole perspective? Well, this is the first thing
that happens when the gospel comes in power. There is the
impartation of these basic Christian virtues. Now they need development,
granted. They need to be increased, granted.
They need to be cultivated, granted. But if they haven't been implanted
by the Holy Ghost, you're not a Christian. You have no grounds
to claim you're a Christian. For when the gospel comes not
in word only, but in power, that's its first effect. Secondly, verse
6, there will be a diligent adherence to basic Christian standards. Notice how Paul states it. The
gospel came to you, not in word only, but in power, and ye became
mimics, would be a literal translation, or a transliteration from the
original. Ye became imitators of us, that
is, the apostles, and of the Lord. And that is nothing more
or less than a diligent adherence to the basic Christian standards. And what are those standards?
The apostolic instruction. Secondly, our Lord's life and
words. Now let's look at them in that
order for a moment each. He says he became mimics of us. When the Spirit of God applies
the gospel with power to the heart of any sinner. One of the
first actings of that newborn heart is to recognize in the
words of the apostles recorded in scripture the divine standard
for his own life. The same Holy Spirit who spoke
through the apostles as the specially commissioned representatives
of Christ who now dwells in the heart of a believer, the spirit
in the believer answers to the spirit in the Word, given by
apostles, so that without even consciously thinking about it,
the reflexive response of a new man in Christ is to take seriously
the instruction of the Word of God. This idea that you've got
to sit down with a new convert after you've led him through
a decision and then say, now, from this point on, you must
begin to read the scriptures, you must begin to obey. You don't
need to tell a man who's been saved that. You don't need to tell a man
that. Tell a newborn, babe, now you must be hungry and start
opening your mouth, looking for something to eat. With life there
is hunger! Sure there is. They need to be
exhorted to increase in their hunger. Granted, as newborn babes
long for the sincere milk, I'm fully aware of that. But the response of a new man
in Christ to the standard of apostolic instruction is not
something that needs to be coached and pushed. Who was there to
coach and push these Thessalonians? Paul was only there three weeks.
They would think back and remember everything he did and said, and
would seek to pattern their lives accordingly. And then the second
basic Christian standard is our Lord's life and words. What is
the commission binding upon the churches now? Given originally
to the apostles, and now that apostolic commission has become
part of the church's total responsibility. You know the words, you could
quote them to me. make disciples of all the nations, baptizing
them, that is, those who have been made disciples, in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching
them to observe, now notice, whatsoever I have commanded you. Now in John 16, he had given
promise that when the Holy Spirit would come, further revelation
would be given through the apostles. Granted, But he never inferred
that the further revelation of apostolic instruction was to
cancel the binding nature of his own instruction. So when we turn to the Gospels,
we have our Lord's life and words set before us. If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow
me. Take no anxious thought for the
moral. Set your affections on those
things that are eternal. Don't lay up treasure on earth
where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break through and steal.
If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. If thy hand offend thee,
cut it off. He would smite thee on one cheek,
turn the other, all of that rich instruction of the Sermon on
the Mount, our Lord's sermons in the Gospel records. These
are basic Christian standards binding upon the people of God. Now to Paul, adherence to these
basic Christian standards of apostolic instruction And the
standard of our Lord's life and words was evidence that the gospel
had come in power. May I press the question to your
conscience? Do you make serious conscience of implementing the
guidelines of the Word of God? Let me repeat the question. I've chosen every word carefully.
Do you make serious conscience about implementing, not just
listening to, but implementing the standards of the Word of
God. What about you children who profess
to be Christians, to be saved, to be trusting in the Lord Jesus?
Do you take seriously what the Apostle Paul said? Children,
honor thy father and thy mother. Children, obey your parents.
in the Lord, for this is right. You profess to be joined to Christ
by faith. Obey your parents in the Lord,
in the light of your union with Christ and your professed subjection
to Him, demonstrated by obedience to His word. Wives, be subject
to your husbands in everything. As the church is subject to Christ,
so let the wives be to their husbands in everything. Do you take that seriously? I'm
not asking if you obey it perfectly. If you said you did, I'd call
your husband up to witness against you. But do you take it seriously? Well, you say, Pastor, hurry
on to the next question. No, let's sit on that one for a little
while. Do you take it seriously? The only way you know if you
take it seriously is in those instances where your will and
your opinion and your desires come on a collision course with
those of your husband. You don't know if you're obeying
out of principle when you agree with his decision. It's when you have a differing
opinion. And after due respect to you
and discussion, your husband says, Dear, I believe this is
the decision that I must make before God. What do you do with
that? Do you take seriously? Wives,
be subject to your husbands in everything. What about you husbands? Do you take seriously the next
word that comes in Ephesians 5? As Christ loved the church,
so ought husbands to love their wives as their own selves. Do you take serious conscience
about regarding them with the tender, selfless affection with
which Christ regards His church? Do you take that seriously? And
the only way you know if you do is those situations in which
everything your wife has done and is at a given point would
provoke everything other than love. And at that point you say,
Your command is not changed. Though my flesh wants to react
with sharp words, and though my flesh wants to react with
unkindness, Lord, I'm bound by your words. I must love her as
you love me, even in my disappointments of you. Even in the discovery
of my weakness, you love me, Lord. I will to love my wife
as you love me. God, give me the grace. That's
what it means to take it seriously. You don't make conscience of
that command in those situations where it's
natural to do what love dictates. It's in those circumstances where
it's not natural. You say, Pastor, there you go
again. No word for us singles. Oh, there's lots of words for
you singles. You haven't been reading your
Bible if you made that statement in your conscience. Plenty of words. Be ye holy,
for I am holy. Abstain from fleshly lust, which
war against the soul. Let no corrupt speech proceed
out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying.
Lie not one to another. Be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven
you. Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace. Just quoting at random from Ephesians
4. Do you take those things seriously?
That's my question. Can it be said of you, you became
a mimic? of the apostolic directives and
of the Lord Jesus, not a perfect mimic, but a serious mimic. That's what the word means. He
became imitators. That's the second great evidence
that the gospel has come in power. Not only will there be the impartation
of basic Christian graces, there will be this diligent adherence
to basic Christian standards, And now I shall just have to
give you the other heads quickly so that you can see something
of the overview of the chapter. The third thing, there will always
be the opposition of the world and of apostate religion. Look
at the next phrase. Ye became imitators of us and
of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction. Acts 17 is a commentary, verses
1 to 9, on how and by what means the affliction came. And the
affliction came from apostate religion and from ungodly worldlings. Do you know anything about opposition?
Some of us found it coming from the most unlikely quarters when
we were converted. And I speak by experience. Some
of the very people who prayed for me in my days of open indifference
to the gospel, when God really saved me, were the ones who opposed
me. Isn't that strange? Because what God did was a little
bit more than they were asking for. And it showed up what they
had as being empty. It was disturbing to them that
I wanted to go on the street corner and proclaim to men what
Christ had done for me. Disturbing for them that instead
of sitting up and necking till 12 o'clock, I wanted to pray
half the night with my buddies. Disturbing that I became so imbalanced
as to wear out a new Bible, a Thompson Chain reference Bible in two
years. It looked like it was used for
20 years. Disturbing that all I wanted to talk about was my
Savior. All I wanted to do was pray. Disturbing that I no longer
wanted to be involved in competitive sports for they were my God.
And God smashed the idol and gave me more joy in prayer than
in putting my head into some linebacker's gut and bowling
him over and taking the ball for seven yards. They don't want this fellow to
go to hell. want to have enough of Christ
in religion, but not so much as to rock the boat, you see?
That's what happens when the power of the gospel comes. Not
always in the same degree, not always in the same way, but sooner
or later there will be the opposition of apostate religion, and of
course the opposition of the world is very clearly described
in John 3. Men love darkness rather than
light, because their deeds are evil. And basically the antipathy
of the world into the Christian is his attempt to extinguish
the light. That's what they did to our Lord,
and our Lord said their treatment of him is the pattern of their
treatment to his people. And I'll just give you the heads
of the other and then we'll close, alright? The fourth thing that
will always come when the gospel comes in power is what I'm calling
the exhilaration of true religion. Notice how he describes it, the
latter part of verse 6. He received the word in much
affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. The kingdom of God is
not eating and drinking but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Christian joy. Some, when their
joy is at its height, they've got to express it in such a way
that the whole neighborhood would know it. And if you're of that
nature, fine, just don't do it at midnight. You might get your
neighbors upset. Some people, their joy is expressed
in their face, but not everybody. This idea, oh, I could tell he
was a Christian by the smile on his face. A dear missionary
friend of mine forever knocked that thing where it ought to
be knocked and into the place where it ought to be put when
he showed some wonderfully beautifully looking, smiling people from
some savage tribe and everyone would do an answer. Look at the
joy of the Lord on their face. He says, let me tell you about
the joy of the Lord. A week before I took the picture, that guy
killed so-and-so, this one killed somebody else. They were nothing
but unconverted, unregenerate people who probably had a full
belly of somebody that they had just cannibalized and were happy. So, no, no. Now when the Bible talks about
joy, it doesn't mean a 32-tooth grin. It doesn't mean some kind
of ebullience and exuberance that will be shown necessarily
externally, but it's that which is produced by the Spirit. Galatians
5, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. A joy not dependent
on natural or physical circumstances, because he says here, joy in
much affliction, but is that deep, settled awareness. that the greatest conflict in
all of heaven and earth between me and the living God has been
resolved through the blood of the cross. And who cannot have
some measure but have some measure of inward rejoicing in the knowledge
that sins are forgiven. Then there is the exhibition
of what I'm calling reality to those about us. Verse 7, And
ye became an ensample to their children, to their friends, people
around them. These people mimicking the apostles
became a model for others to mimic. He says he became imitators
and the imitation was so effective you then became an example to
others. There's the exhibition of reality
in the life. Whenever the gospel comes in
power to some degree, this must be true, verse 8, They began
to be engaged in the propagation of the truth. From you have sounded
forth the word of the Lord. That word which they received
in power and transformed them. They begin to be concerned with
its propagation. There's no such thing as a Christian
who doesn't long to share the message with others. There are
many Christians who find great difficulty in knowing how to
share it. There are many Christians who
find great difficulties in when to share it. I'm not dealing
with that problem. What I'm stating is that in the
heart of every true Christian who's felt the power of the gospel
is the yearning to share its message with others and to pray
that God will attend it with power, that they might know its
transforming effects. And then last of all, verse 10,
9 and 10, They experienced what I would call the renovation of
a sound conversion. Ye turned unto God from your
idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for his Son from
heaven. What a vigorous description of
a sound conversion. Isn't this so much more healthy
and got a lot more, a higher blood count than these anemic
little phrases of making a commitment? It just sounds bloodless next
to this. He turned from your idols to
repentance. He turned to God to do what? Not to take something from him,
but to serve him. He turned to serve. There was
a change of government. The idols were smashed. The true
God was enthroned. And then they had this hope that
the best was yet to come. They were waiting for his son
from heaven. They turned from their idols.
Anything that was occupying the place of God, whether it be a
literal stone idol, whether it be pride, our heritage, our religious
privileges, whatever it be, we must turn from our idols. And
when the gospel comes in power, it always comes with idol-smashing
authority. And then it turns us to serve
the living and the true God, to wait for His Son from heaven.
I submit that this is why Paul knew they were elect, because
they became what we see in the chapter. I close now where we
began. Are you beloved of God and elect? You say, how can I know? The
answer is here. Have you become what they became? Has the gospel come to you in
power? Or has it come in word only? That's the question you must
ask. And ask with judgment day honesty. And if you face it with
judgment day honesty and say, Oh God, you know that in the
light of what we've seen from your own word, this is all I've
done. You must admit I haven't told
many stories. I've tried to expound the word
of God to you. In the light of what you've heard,
you say, oh God, I don't know that I have any grounds to believe
the gospel's ever come to be in power. What do I do? Ah, my
friend, that very conviction is a good sign that that word
is coming to you in power. For one of the most manifest
and profound Exercises of divine power is the stripping away of
a false hope and bringing an unconverted professing Christian
to the place where he says, I don't have the real thing. Jonathan
Edwards who lived through revivals and dealt with many many people
under great distress of soul said this, a sound conversion
is a very rare thing but when God strips a man of his professed
conversion and brings into genuine conversion, this is the rarest
thing yet. Oh, my friend, if God's been
doing His stripping work, and I don't know what He's been doing
as the Word's been preached, then don't take that as just
the influence of the preacher. Ten thousand preachers could
never strip the false hope from a man who cherishes it. That's
the evidence that God's been pleased to hear our prayer and
attend His Word with power. Bow before Him. Say, O God, You've
found me out. By Your grace, Lord, do in me
what the Gospel's supposed to do. Lord Jesus, Thou mighty conqueror,
come out of Zion. Come to me. Lord Jesus, smash
the idols of my heart. Lord Jesus, enable me to embrace
you as my prophet, my priest, my king. He promises mercy to
all who come. He says in his own word, come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Him that comes to me, I will
in no wise cast out. Oh dear friend, if that's your
state, throw yourself upon it. You may slip through life knowing
only the word of the gospel, but you'll never make it into
eternity and safety. You must know the power of the
gospel. And dear Christians, my final appeal to you would
be, will you not renew your prayers to God that the gospel preached
from this place and in every place where the biblical gospel
is preached? that God would attend it with
such unction that to many it would come not in word only but
in power that we would see people becoming what the Thessalonians
became that we would see people wrenched loose from their idols
wrenched loose from a course of self-pleasing brought captive
to the Lord Jesus Begin to evidence the graces of faith, of love,
and of hope. Begin to be serious adherents
to the standards of the Word of God. Begin to be examples
to others. Begin to evidence the exuberation
of true Christian joy. begin to evidence something of
that walk before God that will stir up the opposition and the
enmity of mere empty religion and of worldlings. I think one
of the saddest commentaries on any Christian is that he can
be ignored. God help us when we can be ignored. May the Lord
make us a force to be contended with. That men may know that
there is a God in Zion. To this end, dear fellow Christian,
let us cry to God that we shall yet see in our day the Word coming
in power, in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.