Please open your Bibles with me to First Thessalonians, chapter one. First Thessalonians, chapter one. The title of the message, as you can see, is Knowing Your Election. Knowing Your Election. I took that title from verse four of this chapter, Knowing Brethren Beloved. your election of God. Beloved of God, your election of God.

Let's begin at verse one. The apostle Paul and a fellow evangelist with him, Silvanus, and Timothy, that's Timotheus, that's Timothy, to whom Paul left at Ephesus for a while and wrote two letters to him. Unto the Church of the Thessalonians, a region in Asia Minor where God had raised up a church through the Apostle Paul, a local body of believers. He said unto the Church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking of their unity with the Father and the Son by the Spirit, and His usual salutation, grace be unto you, because all of salvation is by God's grace.

I know a lot of people say that, and just about everybody and their mother sings Amazing Grace. But do you really understand grace? That's the issue here. Because grace, whatever grace is, it means this. Whatever you receive, you didn't earn it and you don't deserve it. And I'll say that of myself right now. By God's grace, I've been preaching this gospel for about 40 years now. That's astonishing to me that I even say that. But by God's grace, I've been preaching about 40 years, and I can tell you that through those years and the years coming, I haven't earned one iota of God's blessings and benefits. It's given. Salvation is a gift. And everything that's connected with salvation, every blessing and benefit, every means God uses means. That's what we were talking about, Mark.

We won't seek the Lord on our own because of our natural state fallen in Adam. We're born dead, spiritually. Now in that dead state, we can think up a lot of things, we can do a lot of things, we can be religious, we can write books, we can invent things that help us. We can love ourselves, we can love one another in a way. But what we will not do is we will not submit to the things of God connected with salvation. And in order for us to seek the Lord, and that word Lord there, that name Lord there means God our salvation. In order for us to seek the Lord, we have to be brought to do that by the grace and power of God. That's what it is.

Every, we're gonna talk about God's elect. That's the people that God chose to save before the world began. And the Bible, the church is commonly called the elect of God. How do you know who they are? It has nothing to do with our pride, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile. And so that's what we're going to talk a little bit about here in 1 Thessalonians 1. Here's what I know. God will bring his elect to seek him. He'll do that. Why do I know that? Because he says he will. Christ makes this statement now. Christ knew who the elect were. He knew who the church was.

Let's just look at verse one. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be unto you and peace, that's peace with God, established by Christ, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse two, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. I'm thankful for my brethren in Christ. I pray for you.

Remembering without ceasing your work of faith. There's a work of faith. That's not a work done in order to gain or maintain salvation. If it were, if you're working to gain or maintain your salvation, that's not a work of faith. That's a work of pride. You see the difference? A work of faith is a work that is the work of God within us according to His power and His grace. It's not a work motivated by legalism. And let me tell you something, legalism is one of the worst diseases that enters in to professing Christian churches. And it shows itself in so many subtle ways. Legalism.

That's working in order to gain God's favor to gain God's blessings, to improve yourself in order to get God to smile on you, thinking that you're getting better and better and less sinful and less sinful. Now think about it. Do I want to improve as an individual? Sure I do. But that's not going to gain God's favor for me. That's not gonna make God smile on me. I'm not earning God's approval. I want God to approve of me, but I can't earn it. And I don't deserve it.

So remembering without ceasing your work of faith, that's a work done motivated by grace and love and gratitude and aimed toward the glory of God. You know the scripture, Matthew 5, verse 16, which says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and do what? Give you the key to the city. No. Glorify God. I want what I am and what I do to point to the glory of God. I had a lady tell me one time, she said, well, I know you're saved because you did this. And I told her, no, you're wrong. I said, my salvation is not wrapped up in what I do or don't do. And I point her in the gospel towards the glory of God. A sinner saved by grace is a testimony to the glory of God in Christ.

And the only way you're gonna know that is for that sinner to tell you the gospel. I've had people say, you're the only Bible that some people read. How sad. Or, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one. Faith comes by hearing, not by us looking at each other. Now when you look at us, when we look at each other, we ought to see individuals who are seeking the glory of God. That's what we ought to seek, but that's not gonna save us. Only seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that's what saves a sinner. So he says, your work of faith and labor of love and patience or endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father.

So Paul states that he knew that God and these people, they were his brethren. Because we have the same Father, the God who saves sinners by grace, the God who justifies the ungodly based on one ground, and that's the righteousness of his Son, freely imputed to us. That's the only ground upon which God saves us, justifies us. And what is it to be justified? We're gonna take the Lord's Supper today.

Christ said, this is my blood that was shed for you, for your sins. To be justified is to be forgiven of all my sins on one ground. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. See? Nothing else. You can go confess to the preacher or the priest. You can cry. You can turn over a new leaf. That's not the ground of forgiveness. The blood of Jesus Christ is the ground of forgiveness. And that's it. What is it to be justified?

It's to be declared in the eyes of Almighty God the judge of all, righteous in his sight, on one ground, that same blood, which equals out to what the Bible calls righteousness, imputed righteousness, Romans chapter four and verse six, the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works.

And so Paul comes to this point, he says, knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God. Paul states that he knew that God had elected, chosen them, ordained them unto eternal life, in and by Christ, before the foundation of the world, because of the evidences of grace within them, faith, love, hope, because of what he describes in these next verses.

Listen to what he says in verse five. Knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God for our gospel came not unto you in word only. In word only. In other words, it's not just something you heard with the physical ear and confessed with the tongue as a profession. but also in power.

Remember in Romans 1.16, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first, the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness of God to everyone that believeth, Jew first and the Greek also, or Gentile, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith. What is that faith? That's the knowledge, that's the truth. of Christ crucified and risen from the dead. The person and work of Christ.

It's not the message that people are hearing today. God loves you and Christ died for you, now the rest is up to you. That's not it. That's a false message. It's the person and work. Who is Jesus Christ? God manifest in the flesh. What did he do? He died for his people to save them from their sins.

That gospel came to you not just in word only. It's not just a message you heard and claimed to believe, but it came to you in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. I heard a preacher one time preaching on assurance. And he said this, he said, faith and assurance are two different things. You can have faith, but not have assurance, he said. And I said, in my mind, I was sitting there listening to it. I didn't speak. I said, not so. Not so. Now, faith grows. I know that.

It becomes stronger as you learn grow in grace and in knowledge of Christ. But Paul says here that it came to you in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. Do you believe the gospel? If you do, that's assurance. That's assurance that your salvation is settled and sure in Christ.

Now you have all kinds of people saying all kinds of things. For example, there are those who say, well, you can be saved, but then if you don't keep on keeping on, you can be lost. Is that the kind of assurance that you want? They believe that because they believe it's all conditioned on them. That's not grace.

Christ said it's finished. Paul said, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Now notice, who is able? Christ is able. And what have I committed unto him? All my salvation is committed to him. None of it's committed to me. He is able to save to the what? Uttermost, them that come unto the Father by Him. That's what assurance is all about. In the book of Hebrews chapter 12, it starts out talking about a sin that so easily besets us. And you know what that sin is? It's unbelief and doubt. Because we'll go through life and we'll have things happen. We'll get down and we'll die. Oh, I just don't know if I'm saved or not. That kind of thing. How do you combat that? How do you fight it?

Hebrews 12.2 tells us. We run the race of grace looking unto Jesus, the author and the what? Finisher of our faith. It's in His hands.

He says, in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake, preachers of the gospel. In verse six, he says, you became followers of us, not followers of men per se, like religion does, but they believed what Paul preached. Why should you believe what I'm preaching this morning? It has nothing to do with me. has nothing to do with the fact that I've been preaching it for 40 years. It's because it's backed up by this book. That's the whole issue. Is it the word of God? I've heard people follow preachers because they've been in the ministry a long time. Well, I hope that them being in the ministry a long time means the ministry of truth. But don't follow him. Listen, Methuselah was alive 969 years. I don't know what he preached. But if he preached the truth, don't follow it just because Methuselah preached it. Follow it because it's the word of God.

I've heard that said. People say, well, I don't know. He's been in it for a long time. That's no reason. He says, you became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. And this word brings much affliction. It brings affliction from your family, it brings affliction from your friends, brings affliction from the religious world. And why is that? Why is that? Because of John chapter three. Remember what it says over, I hope my memory's not failing me on that. Because if it is, I'll be a long time, no. Here it is, verse 19, John three.

This is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deed should be reproved. When you preach salvation truly by the grace of God, based on the righteousness of Christ, what does it do to the works of men aimed at salvation? It exposes it to be evil deeds. Not because it's immoral in the eyes of men, but because it denies the glory of God in Christ. It exalts the sinner and gives him or her room to glory. That's why Paul said, God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of Christ.

He says in verse 7 of 1 Thessalonians, so that you were in samples, examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. You were an encouragement to believers in other places who were going through problems and afflictions. Verse 8. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God's word is spread abroad so that we need not to speak anything." They were examples for other believers.

Verse nine, for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turned, now listen to this. This is the elect of God. How you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Now you know what that is right there? That's repentance. That springs from faith. Because when we are shown by God the Holy Spirit, the glory of God in Christ, we see then that we've been worshiping an idol.

That God, if you're a believer today, that God who you were serving, that you expected to receive you and bless you and keep you based on your works, He was not the God of the Bible. He was an idol. He is an idol. That's why we can have no fellowship with the world. And so when you saw the true and living God in the person and work of Christ, the God who justifies the ungodly, you turn to that God. from idols to serve the true and living God. Turn to Philippians chapter three. Here's a prime example of it.

Now you hear people talk about Christians and Jews together. And they're talking about Jews who deny our Savior. They deny the person and work of Christ. Could you imagine the Apostle Paul doing that? He was a Jew and rose to high ranks in their religion. Claimed to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses. But he was intent on wiping the name of Jesus of Nazareth off the face of the earth.

And he was on his way on the Damascus road to arrest believers and put them in jail, put them on trial, and kill them. But on his way to Damascus, Christ appeared unto him and dropped him in the dust and blinded him. and revealed himself, sent him to a man to preach the gospel to him. And here's how Paul describes what went through his mind in that experience. Now he's talking to the church at Philippi here who were at that time, and Paul was in prison at Rome at this time.

And he's talking to the church at Philippi here who was being infiltrated by Jewish legalists who were saying something, now, you know, I know you're saved by grace, but you've got to have more than that. It's got to be more than Christ. You've got to keep this law, keep that law. The Gentile men have to be circumcised, blah, blah, blah. That's what they were saying.

And Paul wrote this letter to them, and he says in verse 1 of chapter 3 of Philippians, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in Christ. To write the same things to you, to me, indeed, is not grievous, burdensome, but for you it's safe. For me to write the things that I've already written to you, it's not a burden to me, and to you it's safe.

Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. The concision there is a play on words, of circumcision that really means mutilation. And what he's telling them is that when these Jewish Judaizing legalists reach their goal and get the Gentile men to be circumcised, that has no religious significance. It has nothing. It's nothing to God. He said all they're doing is mutilating you. Beware of it. verse three, listen to this, he says, for we are the circumcision.

Now what he's talking about here is circumcision of the heart described in Romans 2 28 and 29. To be born again by the Spirit is to be circumcised in the heart brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works which is the cutting away of the filth of the flesh spiritually. Because in your mind, as God teaches us, you recognize it now to be the filthy work that it is, the sin that it is. So he says, we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit. We worship God from the heart. And as the Holy Spirit guides us, we rejoice in Christ Jesus. The word rejoice there means to boast. to glory, we glory in Christ, not in our works, and have no confidence in the flesh. That's repentance, faith and repentance.

And look at verse four, he says, though I might also have confidence in the flesh. Paul's saying here now, if anybody could have confidence in the flesh to make them right with God, I could. And he's right if it could happen, but it can't. He said, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised the eighth day. That was according to the law. If being circumcised the eighth day could get you right with God, I'd be right with God. That's what he's saying.

Of the stock of Israel. Everybody says they're the elect of God. They were under the old covenant, but that's gone. The elect of God now are is the church, it's believers. And detractors of that, they'll say, well, that's replacement theology. You've heard that term. It's not replacement theology, it's fulfillment theology.

He says, of the tribe of Benjamin, which was an honored tribe. And Hebrew of Hebrews. What Paul's saying there, he was a full-blooded Hebrew. I don't know how he knew that, but he thought that. As touching the law of Pharisee, somebody who went above and beyond the call of duty. Verse six, concerning zeal, persecuting the church. In other words, he was adamant to persecute and get rid of anything that he thought was blasphemy. Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Talking about the outward character and conduct. Nobody could accuse Paul justly of breaking the law. Now he did break the law. You remember he said in Romans 7, he said, before I knew the law, I thought I was okay. But when I found out what the law really said, I found I died, he said. It killed me. I thought it was my life, now it killed me. In Romans 7.

But now here's what happened in his mind when the Lord taught him the gospel. Verse seven. But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. You see that? Everything, all those things he listed he thought recommended him to God, he saw now they didn't mean anything. They were nothing, less than nothing, for Christ's sake. He says in verse eight, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dumb, that I may win Christ. My friend, everything that he thought was good and beautiful and recommended in God, he now put in the dung pile.

That's repentance. God changed his mind about who God is, about who he was, and about who Christ is. He said, I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. That's the elect of God. That's where God brings him. And back over in 1 Thessalonians 1, he said, you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. In verse 10, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. That's what the elect of God are doing today. We're waiting for His Son.

Don't know when He's gonna come. None of us do. Think it's close. I know it's closer than before. You know, in Thessalonica, There was a group of people, and you can read about them in 2 Thessalonians, who were just dead sure he's coming in our day. They were so sure that they quit their jobs and went off and lived in camps and caves, waiting for the Lord to come through the clouds.

There was a problem, though. He didn't come. And they got hungry. They quit their jobs. So what did they do? They went back to the church asking for help. You know what Paul said for the church to tell? If you don't work, you don't eat. Now that's true of all of us who are capable of working. It's not talking about people who are incapable of taking care of themselves. We're not a welfare group, but we're not cold-hearted either. If somebody cannot take care of themselves in the church, we're to take care of them. He mentions that in the book of James and in other books about widows and orphans. A widow back then, when she was made widow, she didn't have any means of support. And an orphan.

But we don't know when he's coming back. What are we to do? In the meantime, live our lives, be responsible people, workers, husbands, wives, children, all of it. But we expect him to come at any time. It could be today, tomorrow, could be 50 years from now, I don't know. But either he's gonna come back or I'm gonna go to meet him. I think I'm pretty much closer to going to meet him. But I do pray, Lord, come on, like John prayed. Even so, Lord Jesus, come. But that's who the elect of God are.

And you don't know that until God brings you to that point of faith in Christ and repentance of dead works, according to the scriptures. It has nothing to do with being a Jew or a Gentile or a moral person or a religious person. Is Christ your only hope of salvation, of forgiveness, of being justified, being glorified? Is Christ, the true Christ of the Bible, not a false Christ, is he your only hope? And if he is, we invite you to take this supper with us. If he's not, you better leave it alone. That's what I say. That's what the word says. All right?