All right, 1 Thessalonians chapter
2 is where our lesson will be taken from this morning. The title of the lesson is Thank
God Without Ceasing. The title is taken from verse
13. He says, For this cause also
thank we God without ceasing. I'd like for us to look at some
reasons why we would thank God without ceasing. Now, last week
we ended in verse 11. Paul says, as you know, how we
exhorted and comforted, we charged, we testified. Every one of you,
as a father, doth his children. And here's what we testified
to you. Here's what we charged and comforted you with. That
you would walk worthy of God, who hath called you in his kingdom
and glory. Now, how is anyone going to walk
worthy of God? We can't walk worthy of God.
Well, we walk worthy of Him by imitating God, by imitating the
kindness and grace of God. Well, that's not just being kind
and gracious to people who deserve it, is it? Did you deserve God's
grace? Did you deserve God's kindness?
The way we imitate His kindness and grace is by being kind and
gracious to people, even when they don't deserve it. Do your
best. If you want to walk worthy of
God, do your best. Imitate His holiness. Imitate
His righteousness. Be ye holy as I'm holy. Do your
best to conform yourself to the revealed will of God. A believer
should adorn the gospel, shouldn't we? We should adorn the gospel
and not cause the gospel to be blasphemed by the way we live.
You know, people see us and they think, well, you know, acting
like ourselves, acting poorly. I don't want anything to do with
His God. I don't want anything to do with His gospel that doesn't
seem to do Him any good. And the motivation for walking that
way, for conducting yourself that way, is a thankful heart,
not because you have to, out of a thankful, grateful heart.
And here's the first reason we thank God without ceasing. God
called us. God called us in mercy and grace. Now, we didn't deserve for God
to even notice us, much less call us in mercy and grace. God's called us out of darkness
into light. He's called us out of self into
Christ. He's called us out of sin into
righteousness. God calls his sheep and he makes
sure his sheep hear. They hear his voice and they
follow him. Now that makes us thankful. God's called you, that
thrills your heart, makes you so thankful. And then that makes
it a delight to at least try, at least attempt walking worthy
of that calling. Don't ever stop. Don't ever let
this be lost on you. so that it makes you stop giving
thanks. God called you. You think of all the people in
the world. God called you. That's a reason to be thankful.
Second, we thank God without ceasing because God's called
us into His kingdom and into His glory. God's called us into
the kingdom of His dear Son. He's called us into the kingdom
of grace, the kingdom of righteousness. He's called us out of this world
of warfare and ugliness into a kingdom of peace. What a blessing. Now, that has to be a sovereign
call, doesn't it? He's called us into his kingdom.
The only person who's got a kingdom is a king. This is a sovereign
call. And how thankful we should be.
God's made us meet. He's made us fit to enter into
his kingdom. A number of years ago, we went to New York City.
We went out and visited Ellis Island. And it was just the stories
that you read about there, people coming Delos Island from ships
from all over the world and worried to death. They know they're going
to be examined. They know they're going to be.
Am I going to be found fit? Are they going to find something
that makes me where I can't come in? Everyone who God calls is
going to be examined and they're going to be found fit because
God's made them fit. He's made them meet to enter
into the kingdom of his dear son. Don't ever stop giving thanks
for that. That's a blessing. And give thanks,
God's called you to glory. He's called his people to the
glory of faith. How glorious is faith that sees
Christ, that hears Christ, that loves Christ? That's glorious.
God's called his people to the glory of having Christ as our
Savior. How glorious is it? God's given
his Son to be a Savior of his people. He's called you to that
glory. He's called you to the glory
of being made just like Christ. As he is, so are we in this world. He's called you to the glory
of spending eternity with Christ. I say this over and over and
over again, the glory of heaven is not streets of gold and pearly
gates and mansions. It's seeing Christ face to face,
being like him, worshiping him face to face. That is too glorious
for us to be able to comprehend. Our pea brains cannot comprehend
that. But that won't make us stop giving
thanks. Don't ever cease giving thanks.
God's called us to glory. Third, we give thanks. Thank
God without ceasing that we have received the word of God. Look
at verse 13. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because when you receive the word of
God, which you heard of us, you received it, not as the words
of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which affectionately
worketh also in you that believe. Now, everyone who hears the gospel,
they don't hear the gospel as the word of God. They don't hear
the gospel as the word of truth. Everyone who hears the gospel
doesn't hear it in the power of the Holy Spirit. And I'll
give you a good example of that from this week. There's a congregation
in another city. They had some interest in the
gospel. They heard Henry on the Internet. They ordered his books. They read his books. They said
they wanted to hear more of that. They called Tom Harding. Tom's
the one who puts Henry's sermons on the internet and things. That's
his number. They called Tom. Tom scheduled six pastors to
go preach to them. Six gifted men of God to go preach
the gospel to them. After two Sundays, they called
Tom and said, we don't want to hear this gospel ever again.
What happened? I thought they were interested.
Well, whatever interest they had wasn't interest that came
from the power of the Holy Spirit. It was to hear the voice of a
man. They heard the words of a man. They didn't hear the word
of God, or they never would have said that. Now, that's sad. It is so sad. But I'm telling
you, it makes me thankful. I read, Tom sent me that email,
told me that, and that was so sad, but I immediately gave thanks. How thankful I am for God's grace
and God's power. He makes his people hear. What's
the difference between you and them? And what's the difference? Come on, what's the difference
between you and them? They rejected the gospel. So everyone hear
that gospel again. What's the difference? You do
came here this morning to hear it. What's the difference? The
only difference is God's power and God's will. It was God's
will that you hear. And in his power, he made you
hear. And you not just you hear it. You believe it. You love
it. Christ is your life. You became
followers of Christ because that's God's will. That's his power. Don't ever stop giving thanks
for that. Now, if you're going to hear the gospel, you're going
to hear a man. If you're going to hear the word
of God, you're going to hear it from a man. Paul said, if
you heard it from us. You're here from a man who's
flawed, a man who's a sinner, but it's going to be a man sent
from God with God's message. That's who you're going to hear.
If God's been pleased to save you, you're going to hear from
a man, but you're not just going to hear a man. You're going to
hear the word of God. You hear God speaking through
his word. You're going to hear the word of truth. Now look at
Psalm 119. The gospel is the word of truth. This word, the word of God. This
book doesn't just contain truth. It is truth. Christ doesn't just
reveal some truth to us, Christ God's word is truth. Look at
Psalm 119 verse 142. Thy righteousness is an everlasting
righteousness, and thy law is truth. That word law there is
the words, the whole of the commandment, the whole of the written word,
thy law is truth. It doesn't just reveal truth
to us, it is truth. Look at verse 151. For thou art near, O Lord, and
all thy commandments truth." That word, ours, even in italics,
all thy commandments, truth. It is truth. Now look at John
17. John 17, verse 17. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy Word is truth. This Word,
which you're holding in your lap, is truth. It doesn't just
contain a string of true statements. It is truth. And this truth has
the power to reveal Christ, who is truth. And when God's sheep
hear His Word, they say, I believe that. That's right. That's what
I believe. They can't explain why they believe
it. They can't even explain why it's so. But they just believe
it because of the power of God. They hear truth and they believe
it. It just makes perfect sense to them. They may never heard
it before and they hear God's word and say, well, that just
makes sense. That's as clear as can be because
God's revealed the truth to them. And the cheap, they don't see
truth as something to be debated. It's not something we're going
to butt heads about. It's just so. Truth is to be believed and
is to be bowed to. And God's sheep, when they hear
the word in truth and power, they bow to it, they believe
it. Well, how'd that happen? How does it just make sense to
them? How do they not? They just can't help themselves,
they just believe. How'd that happen? Because God gave them
faith in Christ through the power of the word. Paul says, which
effectually worketh also in you that believe. God's word, you
hear it externally. But it works in you, it enters
into your heart and it works powerfully. Look at Hebrews chapter
four. It's working in a believer, that's
the giving of faith in the new birth, and it comes through the
word of God, Hebrews 4 verse 12. For the word of God is quick
and powerful, sharper than the two edged sword. piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints
and marrow, for it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart." Now, what does that mean? It means God's Word reveals
everything as it is, just exactly as it is. God's Word reveals
our sin. It reveals the disease of it.
It reveals the filth of it, which causes us to look to Christ to
cleanse us from all sin. It causes us to look to Christ
to heal us from all of our spiritual diseases. God's Word reveals
we're lost in Adam. And it does it so clearly for
this reason, so that we'll look to Christ to save us. God's Word
reveals our weakness. It reveals our total inability
to do anything. And you know why it reveals that?
So we'll depend upon Christ to do all the saving, to do all
the keeping, to do all the calling. We'll depend on him for everything.
God's word reveals to us there's no comfort to be found in this
world. None. God's word makes the flesh uncomfortable. You know why? So we'll look to
Christ for all of our comfort. Isn't that how the gospel came
to these Thessalonians? Look back at chapter 1 in 1 Thessalonians. That's how the gospel came to
them. Verse five. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and
in much assurance, you were assured, you knew this is the truth and
you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
That's how the gospel comes to God's sheep. And you perceive
God's grace in your soul. He did an inward work. That's
a whole lot more words on paper. You can debate, you can bat around
words on paper, but you can't debate life. You can't debate
truth. God's given that to you. He's
given you a heart that loves it and receives it. Well, we
give thanks without ceasing, don't we? That's God's mercy.
You receive God's word because God sent it to you. You heard
God's word because God gave you here and here. You believe God's
Word because God the Holy Spirit put faith in your heart to believe.
All that happened through God's Word. Well, then we'll just preach
God's Word. I'm not going to preach anything else. This is
how sinners are saved through the preaching of the Word. This
is how God's sheep are fed. This is how they grow and nourish
and encourage and comforted through the Word. And I'm just thankful
for that. We'll just preach God's Word.
God's given us His Word. I don't have to go looking for
something clever to preach every week. Just right here it is.
Just declaring it. So that's so simple. So thankful
God's given that to us. And here's how important God's
word is. If the Lord Jesus was in the flesh speaking here this
morning, I hope and pray he is speaking to you. I'm talking
about if he was here in the flesh speaking to you this morning.
He wouldn't say anything different what you're holding in your lap.
He wouldn't say anything different. This is the Word of God. And
He's given that to you. You perceived it. You believe
it. You love it. Give thanks without ceasing.
Fourth, we thank God without ceasing that He's made every
believer just like Christ. Look at verse 14. For ye, brethren,
became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in
Christ Jesus. Now, every believer is just alike.
They're all just alike in this sense. Every believer believes
the same thing about salvation. I don't care where you find them.
Every believer believes, knows salvation is all in Christ and
Christ gets all the glory for it. Every believer believes in
my total depravity and the sinfulness of my flesh. Now, that's different
than believing in total depravity. That's believing my total depravity. That's different than believing,
well, in human flesh dwells no good thing. Every believer believes
in my flesh dwells no good thing. They're all alike. Every believer
has the same object of faith. All their faith is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every believer has one rule of
faith. It's God's Word. That's the only
rule of faith. Now, we have physical differences.
We look different. We sound different. We have different
cultures. But there's a sameness. There's a family resemblance
you cannot duplicate. When we went to Mexico, it didn't
take long to look around. You go to the meetings, you know,
and you look around. Well, I look different than everybody
else. I sound different than everybody
else. I talk a different language than everybody else. But there
was a sameness. There's a sameness you cannot
explain. As we all sat there listening
to Christ being preached, there was a heartbomb. that you don't
need language to express. There's a sameness in believers.
That's the faith of God's elect. Look at Titus chapter 1. Titus
talks about the faith of God's elect because they all have the
same faith. They all love and believe the
same thing, the same person. Paul, a servant of God, an apostle
of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect. And
here's what happens for all of God's elect, the acknowledging
of the truth, which is after godliness. In hope of eternal
life, they all have the same hope, which God that cannot lie
promised before the world began, but hath in due time manifested
his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according
to the commandment of God our Savior. All believers are the
same. We've been made just like Christ.
And every believer, they're all the same in this manner. They're
all going to suffer trial. They're all going to suffer persecution.
And that's the fifth reason to thank God without ceasing. Look
here at verse 14. For ye, brethren, became followers
of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus.
For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen,
even as they have of the Jews. Now you're saying give thanks
for trial? Give thanks for persecution? Yes, I am. Now, that's contrary
to the flesh, but I'm saying that because God's Word says
to give thanks without ceasing, even for trial and persecution. And there are several reasons
for that. First, trials are a mark of sonship. The Lord only corrects
His sons. He leaves bastards alone. He
only corrects His sons. Trials, secondly, are a mark
of God's love. God only chastens those He loves. Third, trials are a mark of genuine
faith. Faith must be tried. It must
be tried to reveal it as genuine faith, and it must be tried to
strengthen it. That's the only way faith grows, is by being
tried. And here's why faith grows when
it's tried. You don't really believe something
until you experience it. I mean, not really believe. You
might believe it's true, but you really believe something
once you experience it. You won't really, truly believe
Christ is all until he takes it away, until he takes everything
else away. You won't truly believe Christ is able to comfort your
heart until your heart is crushed with sorrow. Then you know he's
able to comfort. Then you'll know, you'll believe
his presence is more valuable to me than anything. You're not
going to believe that until your heart's crushed with sorrow.
Fourth, trials are good forces, good reason to rejoice, because
trials teach us to lean more and more and depend more and
more upon Christ. Once you're in a trial, you learn
more of who He is. Isn't that good? It's good to learn more
of who He is. Depend more and more, because when I'm weak,
then I'm strong, because I'm depending upon Christ. Look at
2 Corinthians chapter 1. Fifthly, trials enable us to
comfort others. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 3. Blessed be God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the God of
all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that
we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the
comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. That's
pretty good, isn't it? That's a pretty good way to be
useful, by being able to comfort others. But you only gain that
ability through being in trial yourself. And every believer
is alike. We're all going to suffer trial,
and God's going to deliver us all alike, too. He'll deliver
us in His time, by His power, and by His might. Look at Acts
chapter 14. Here's another way every believer
is exactly alike. We all have the same destination.
And we're going to travel very similar routes. There are going
to be different routes, different callings, different routes, but
there are going to be very similar routes to the same destination.
Acts 14, verse 21. And when they had preached the
gospel to that city and had taught many, they returned again to
Lystra and Tychonium and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples
and exhorting them to continue in the faith that we must through
much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. We have the
same destination. I tell you how, it's the kingdom
of God. And we're going to enter there through much tribulation. So give thanks. If you're going
through much tribulation, that's the route to the kingdom of God.
And I'll give you another reason to be thankful for trials. God
uses trials to spread the gospel. The believers, you remember the
early church at Jerusalem, they were persecuted. The persecution
was so bad they couldn't stay there, and they're scattered
everywhere. And when they were scattered
everywhere, they went everywhere preaching the gospel. Because
of that persecution, the gospel was preached in places those
folks never would have preached. They never would have gone if
it weren't for this trial that caused them to go other places.
This place I told you about earlier that said, I don't want to hear
the gospel anymore. Could be there's a man there who does.
We'll find out. The tale will soon be told. Could
be he's going to go somewhere else. He's going to hear the
gospel. He's going to drive waves. He's going to go hear the gospel.
And if he does, he's going to be a help and an encouragement
to them there that he never would have been if he hadn't been driven
out of his hometown. Could be. Could be. God could
use that trial to be a blessing to somebody somewhere else. Well, that's reason to be thankful,
isn't it? Fifth, we thank God without ceasing for all the things
he's kept us from doing. Look at verse 15 in our text. "...who both killed the Lord
Jesus and their own prophets, they persecuted us, and they
pleased not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to
speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their
sins always, for the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost."
Now, when you see people in false religion, and they do some crazy
stuff, Don't make fun of them. Pity them. Pity them. And give
thanks. You're not doing the same things
they're doing. The only reason we aren't is God's grace. I'm
telling you the truth. God's kept us from preaching
a false gospel to people. God's kept us from believing
a false gospel. And people who hate the gospel,
they say, well, you're not preaching to all men. You just preach to
the elect. You're not preaching to all men. This is so common. You're not welcoming. You're
not very inclusive. Now, I hope when we have visitors,
they feel welcome. You know, you all greet them,
you make them feel welcome. But now, if through our preaching,
we've got to coddle them, we've got to say things, you know,
good things about their flesh. Well, no, we're not going to
do that. And if they say you're not welcoming and you're not
inclusive because we preach God's sovereignty and salvation. Well,
that's one thing. But this is how I'd answer them.
They think they can please God. The reason they say that is they
think they can please God. They think they're doing God's
service. They think God is pleased with their best effort. And that's
not so. Parents are pleased with the
best effort of their children. God's not pleased with the best
effort of a sinner. God's holy. I'll tell you who
God's pleased with. God's pleased with His Son. God's
pleased with Christ. And He's pleased with those who
are in Christ. And in Christ alone. They're telling men a
lie. Well, they're the ones who are
the enemies of men. Not somebody telling the truth. They're the
ones who are the enemies of men. And second, I say this. I say,
Armenians are the ones who are not inclusive. They are the ones
who are contrary to all men. In what they say, God will only
accept people who are good enough to believe him. God's only going
to accept people who are good enough to, you know, come forward,
walk an aisle, or, you know, meet different criteria. That's
being contrary to all men. The gospel we preach, the gospel
of truth, the word of God, is the only gospel that includes
sinners. This is the only gospel that
has good news to a helpless, hopeless sinner. It's all been
done in Christ. You just rest. You don't even
have to find him. You're lost. He'll come find
you. That's good. And that's the only gospel that
has good news for a sinner. No one is so bad they're kept
out. No one. The only people who are kept
out are people who are too good. And the Jews hated the gospel. Oh, they hated this gospel that
declared an end to the law, that Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. They didn't think it was the
way of salvation. They thought it was heresy. And they hated
Paul more than ever because he went and preached to the Gentiles.
I can't understand that. false gospel makes you contrary,
hateful to all men. The Jews hated the Gentiles,
but they didn't want Paul going preaching this heresy to them.
Does that make any sense to you? You know why they did that? They're
just contrary to all men. Just contrary. God's delivered
you from that. Give thanks. Oh, give thanks
without ceasing. And last. Not last. Yeah, last. Thank God, without
ceasing, that we have a bond and a unity here, a love for
one another, that you want to be with one another. Look at
verse 17. But we, brethren, being taken
from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored
more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Wherefore,
we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once again, but
Satan hindered us. For what is our hope, or joy,
or crown of rejoicing? or not even ye in the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ and his coming. For you're our glory
and you're our joy. Now, obviously, Paul had a great
desire to go be with these brethren in Thessalonica. He planned on
going, but Satan hindered him. He couldn't make it. But believers
feel this way. We have a great desire to be
with one another. And I thank God without ceasing
for the bond of love and unity that we have here. You know,
back last year, I said we're going to start celebrating our
zero birthdays. I never dreamed this year we'd have so many zero
birthdays. But I'm thankful. I really am
thankful. I hope you all aren't getting
tired of me. I'm thankful. Because it gives us an opportunity
to be together, to fellowship and be together. Our ladies brunches.
I'm thankful for them. It gives you an opportunity to
be together. You can't love somebody you don't
know. Somebody real wise said that once. You can't love somebody
you don't know. And the more time we spend together, the more
love and unity that we'll have with each other. And we need
this. Now, believers need to be together. You're with the world a lot.
You go out to work, you're at school, you're all the place.
You're with the world a lot. Believers need to be together
to encourage one another, to comfort and exhort one another.
One of the couples here last Sunday invited me and Chan over
for dinner. We went and spent the evening
together. And I'm telling you, I went home on cloud nine, just
so encouraged and comforted, just, oh, it helped me so much.
It's good to be with the brethren. And that's why Paul desired.
He wanted to come to Thessalonica again. He wanted to be able to
preach to them. He wanted to have a time of fellowship. After
he preached, they'd have dinner. And he wanted that time to be
together, fellowship. I don't think he ever got back
there. But thank God without ceasing, there's going to be
times something keeps us from being together. Something kept
Paul from coming to Thessalonica again. Nothing's ever going to stop
Christ from coming back. Nothing's ever going to stop
you from being with Christ eternally. Nothing. Give thanks. Give thanks without ceasing.
Satan's not going to hinder that. And when Christ does return,
we're going to be together for eternity. Now we're going to
be with Him for eternity, and we'll be with each other for
eternity, and we'll rejoice together. Paul says, you know, you're our
hope. Now we know Christ is our hope of salvation. We have no
other hope other than Christ is our hope of salvation. No
preacher's got a hope of eternity because he somehow won you to
Christ. That's not what he's saying. Christ is our hope of
eternity. But this is what Paul's saying.
You're our hope. He's saying, I have a good hope
of you. I have a good hope. I know your election of God.
I know your faith. I know your hope. I know your
labor of love. I have a good hope for you. And
he says, you're our joy. Now, Christ is our joy, but what
Paul is saying is, I also join you. I join what God's done for
you. I find joy in what God's done
in you. I find joy in what a blessing you are to me and to other people.
I have a lot of joy in that. And you're our crown of rejoicing. You're our crown of glory. Now,
boy, people take that and take it to places that don't belong.
This is not teaching believers are going to get crowns in glory.
You're going to get somehow better credit for somebody else in glory
because you won more souls or you did more. That's not what
this is saying at all. Christ has the crown. Christ
is the king. He has the crown. Nobody else
has any. Now, who's going to get the credit
for you? Who's going to get the credit
for that? I'm not. John's not. Henry's
not. No other preacher is. Christ
gets all the glory for that. So you can't be teaching that
believers are going to get crowns and glory. Well, what's he talking
about? Well, people of this day, when
Paul was writing this letter, they would wear a crown or a
wreath that might be made of twine or twigs or it probably
was never a golden crown, but they wore this wreath. at times
of special thanksgiving and special celebration. One time very common
for people to wear a crown was at a wedding. The bride and groom
would wear this wreath and it was an emblem that this is a
special time of rejoicing for the two of us. That's going to
be glory for a believer. Special, special time of rejoicing. Rejoicing together in God's salvation. Rejoicing in salvation. in our
Lord Jesus Christ, rejoicing together in what God's done for
us. We'll rejoice that the marriage between Christ and His bride
is finally consummated and they'll never be apart again. Never. I'll rejoice that you're
there and you'll rejoice that I'm there. We're going to rejoice
together in God's grace. And all the glory, all the worship,
all the praise of us together is all going to go to Christ
and then We'll do what we wish we could do now. Thank God without
ceasing. Thank Him without ceasing.