First Thessalonians chapter 1,
the church at Thessalonica had been established by the Apostle
Paul. He came there preaching and he stayed about three weeks
until he was run out of town by an angry mob that the Jews
had stirred up to oppose him, and he left. But during this
time that he's been gone, this church at Thessalonica had become
well established. It had grown in grace. I don't know necessarily that
it grew in numbers. I don't know anything about that.
I do know that it had grown in grace and grown in faith. And
Paul's main purpose in writing this letter is to thank God for
them. And also to thank them for their
faith and for their love and to encourage them to continue
growing, to encourage them to continue maturing and pressing
on towards the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ
Jesus. And as I've read this letter,
I thought I could say the same things to this congregation.
I do thank God for you. Every day I thank God for you.
I thank God for his work of grace for you and his work of grace
in you. And I'll take this time to thank you. I thank you for
your love and for your faith. I thank you for your kindness
and your generosity, your warmness that you show all the time. But
just like the Apostle Paul tells the church at Thessalonica, I
tell each of us, now let's don't quit. Don't rest on your laurels,
don't be weary in well-doing. So let's look here at this. We'll
look at the first three verses, Lord willing, this morning. Verse
1, Paul and Silvanus in Simotheus, under the church of the Thessalonians,
which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, we know that the Apostle Paul is the author of
this letter. Silvanus and Timothy are with him. And this phrase
caught my attention this week. He's writing to the church at
Thessalonica, which he says is in God the Father and in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I titled the lesson this
morning, is your church, your local church, is your church
in God? Paul says specifically this church
at Thessalonica is in God. Well, is our church in God? Our
local church, is it in God? Well, Paul here in these first
three verses gives us some marks of the church that's in God so
we can tell. And the first mark is if the
church is in God, it's in God the Father. The local church
that worships and praises God who is holy, who praises the
God who's the creator, who praises God who's just, that praises
and worships God who's sovereign in all things. The church that
praises and worships God who is merciful and gracious, that
church is in God. That church has fellowship with
the Father. The church is devoted to the
Father. That church is in God. Secondly,
the church that is in God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
local church that worships The Lord Jesus Christ. Not just businesses
talking about Jesus this and Jesus that. I'm talking about
the church that worships and preaches and praises the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the Lord. He's God. He's
the Son of God who became a man to save His people from their
sins. That church is in God. The church that worships the
Lord Jesus Christ because we're chosen in Christ. Because we're
redeemed in Christ. Because we're made righteous
in Christ, because we're accepted by the Father in Christ, because
we're called to faith in Christ. It's all of Christ. That church
is in God. The church that's dedicated to
Christ, like the body's dedicated to the head, is in God. Christ is the head and we're
the body. The body's dedicated to the head. Well, that church
is in God. Then here's a third word that
describes the church that's in God. It's grace. The local church
that is in God is a church that preaches grace, that loves grace,
that believes God's sovereign, saving grace. Salvation is by
grace. That church that never gets tired
of seeing unearned, unmerited, undeserved, amazing grace that
saved a wretch like me. That church is in God. Salvation
is all of grace. Our message is grace in Christ
Jesus. It takes God's grace to elect
a sinner unto salvation. It takes God's grace to save
a sinner. It takes God's grace to call
a sinner to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
think of God's grace. He called you. That's grace. Oh, what grace. It takes God's
grace to give us the gift of faith in Christ. It takes God's
grace for us to continue, to continue in the faith, to continue
in times of trial. We're utterly dependent upon
God's grace every step of the way. And it takes God's grace
to die, doesn't it? It takes his grace to die in
faith. That church that is in God is
a church that loves God's grace. Here's the fourth word that describes
the church that's in God. It's peace. Peace. The local church that's in God
is a place of peace. It's a peaceful place and it's
a place that preaches peace. The only true peace you can ever
find is found in Christ, isn't it? Scripture says, having made
peace. through the blood of his cross.
That's the only place a sinner can find peace with God is in
the sacrifice of Christ. Well, the church has seen God
preaches that. They preach peace with God through the sacrifice
of our Lord. And if God's given us faith to
believe that message, to believe Christ who is our peace, we have
peace with God. Now, that's a miracle because
the natural man is at war with God. The carnal mind is enmity
with God, but in Christ, the warfare is over. It's finished.
Peace has been made. The peace treaty has been signed,
sealed and delivered in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
a blessing to have peace with God. We have that peace because
of the blood, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if
we have peace with God through the blood of Christ, We're going
to have peace in our heart. Now you'll have peace in your
heart. I don't care what's going on around you. You'll have peace
with God. If Christ has put your sin away
through the sacrifice of himself. Whatever else is going on around
you won't affect your peace. Now other things will bother
us. Other things will tempt us. Other things will cause us pain.
But we'll have peace in our heart. Lasting peace that will not be
affected by circumstances of this flesh. If our sin is gone,
you'd have peace in your heart, a peace in your conscience, a
calmness of heart if your sin's gone. And thirdly, if we have
peace with God through the blood of Christ, we will have peace
with God's people. We're going to be at peace with
one another. If we have peace with God, we're going to have
peace with others who are also not at war with God. They're
our allies. We're going to have trouble with
them or have peace. Now, there will be trouble in
God's church from time to time on this earth, and there are
several reasons for it. First, we're going to have trouble,
because even believers, believers in God's church, are still carrying
around Adam's sin nature, and that's going to cause problems.
There will always, secondly, be terrors among the queen. That's
going to cause problems. And thirdly, Satan attacks. God's
church. He's going to attack the place
where Christ is preached, where Christ is held up, and that's
going to cause problems. But the general prevailing wind
in God's church, the local church that's in God, is peace. Peace
with each other. Peace is our message. We have
peace in our hearts and peace with each other. The fifth word
that describes the local church that's in God is thanks. See
that verse 2? We give thanks to God always
for you all. God's people are thankful. We
ought to be thankful, so of course we're thankful. We have so much
to be thankful for. Who on the face of this planet
has more reasons to be thankful than you, than this congregation?
Nobody. Nobody. We have so much to be
thankful for. We thank God for His mercy, for
His love, for His grace. We thank God for the gift of
His Son. God gave the gift of his son
so that his son would save his people from their sins. You can't
have a better gift than that. When God gives a gift, he gives
the best, doesn't he? The gift of his son. He's given
us the gift of faith. Do you believe God? Is all of
your trust and hope of eternal life in Christ? Well, be thankful. That's a gift God gave you. Everybody
doesn't have that gift. We give thanks for God's keeping
power. Y'all keep showing up here every
week, every week. You keep showing up. That's a
gift of God's keeping power. He's kept you and preserved you.
We thank God for blessing his word. You think of over the years
how God's blessed his word to this congregation. There's no reason for it other
than his grace, other than that he would. I'm thankful. Oh, how thankful. I'm thankful
God's continuing to feed His sheep and call out His sheep.
I thank God for you, just like Paul thanked God for this church
at Thessalonica. I'm thankful. I thank God He
saved you, that He called you, that He keeps you. I thank God
He's given you a warm, loving attitude. I enjoy being with
you all. Because God's giving you this
gracious attitude. But now notice, Paul gives thanks. He doesn't give any credit to
the Thessalonican believers, does he? None. Because they didn't
do anything. He's thanking God for what God's
done for them, what he's done in them. The apostle Paul came
and preached the gospel to these people. God saved them. He established
this church through the preaching of Paul. But Paul doesn't take
any credit for himself, does he? He came to preach where God
sent him, but he didn't do anything. God gave the increase. And I
thank God for you. Same way. But I also thank you. I'm thankful for your faithfulness. I thank you for your generosity.
I thank you for your willingness to serve, your willingness to
help. I thank you for your kindness.
It means a lot. Trust me, it means a lot. Now,
I know that it's God who works in you both the will and the
do of His good pleasure. I know that it's God that did
it. But now I thank you too. I do, I thank you. And it struck
me as I was preparing these notes. It dawned on me, I never really
thought about this before. When I'm standing here at this
door after service, and I'm not, I'm not trying to put words in
your mouth when you, you know, I hesitate to say this, but it
struck me. You say what's in your heart, don't say anything.
I'm not trying to put words in your mouth. I'm not making some
sort of a phrase, you know, we've got to say. But it surprised
me how often I hear the words, thank you, at that door. Thank
you for the message. Thank you for telling me about
Christ. And I'm thankful. That's a mark of a local church
that's in God. People are thankful to hear the
preaching of Christ. Thank you for telling me about
my Savior. They're thankful in general, but they're especially
thankful for Christ, for hearing the message of Christ. The sixth
word that describes the church that's in God is prayer. Verse
two, we give thanks to God always for y'all, making mention of
you in our prayers. God's people are praying people.
Now, if you're in God, if you're one of God's children, you just
have to talk to your Heavenly Father. You have to. In prayer,
it just comes natural to you. It's breathing. And in prayer,
you give thanks. You thank God for all of His
blessings. You praise Him for who He is.
There's none like our God. There's none like Him. In our
prayers, we praise Him, thank Him. There's none like Him. And
a mark of the local church that's in God is they pray for each
other. They care about one another and
they pray for each other. They don't just pray for themselves,
not just praying, God bless me, but they pray for other members
of the church. They pray for the lost. Dan did that in his
prayer this morning. He prayed for the lost. He prayed
for the brethren here and in other places, both home and abroad. Brethren here in the States are
the missionaries that we know of. If God's done a work of grace
in somebody's heart, we pray for one another. We pray for
his Church. You know, the church is not just
here in Ashland. The church is God's body. It's everywhere.
Now, God's people love each other. If you've been born again, you
love. You can't help it. It's the nature
that you perceive. Well, now, remember, show that
love. I know you feel it in your heart. I know you do. Now, be
sure to show it. Show that love. Tell one another
that you love them. Show. Do something to show that
love. And pray for one another. Now take the time to pray for
one another. And you will if you love somebody,
you'll pray for them. You parents. These three classes
going on. You prayed for them this morning.
You got little ones in there. Did you pray for them this week?
Did you pray God save them? You prayed God be merciful to
them? You pray when they go out in the world, God will protect
them. They go out and get on the school bus and they're gone
all day. You don't know where they're at. You don't know what's
going on. Have you prayed for them that God will keep them
safe and protect them? Well, of course you have. Anybody
have to remind you? You know, you don't have to come
here on Sunday and I'm going to remind you not to pray for your children.
It comes natural to you. It's breathing. Why? You love
them. If you love somebody, you pray
for them. Now see, you should pray for
one another. That's a mark of the local church that's in God.
The seventh word that describes the church that's in God is in
verse 3. It's the work of faith. Remembering
without ceasing your work of faith. Now I'm not thanking you
for having faith. I give thanks to God. He's given
you faith. He's the one that gave you the
gift of faith. He put that faith in your heart. But now faith
works. God gave you that gift of faith.
But faith works. Faith works by love. If you look
in Galatians chapter 5, I'll show you how. How does faith work? Galatians 5, verse 5. For we
through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. By faith we wait. For in Christ
Jesus Christ, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. Faith waits and faith works. See there? Verse 5, faith waits. And verse 6, faith works by love. Faith never sits idly by in the
corner. Faith is an act of grace. Faith
at the same time waits for God and faith looks to God. Faith
waits on God and at the same time faith comes to God. Faith
keeps waiting on God, and at the same time, faith keeps coming
to God. Faith waits on God, and at the
same time, faith pleads with God. Faith waits on God, and
at the same time, faith obeys God. God said, repent and be
baptized. Well, faith confesses our Lord
and believers baptize Him. God's Word says, forsake not
the assembling of yourself together. Faith obeys and continually comes
to the worship service. Faith waits and faith worships. Faith waits on God to open doors.
You know, we've got things we'd like to see happen. We don't
go shove the door open. Faith waits on God to open the
door. But at the same time, faith goes through that open door every
time God opens it. Faith jumps in whenever it sees a need without
being asked. Well, I'd say, well, you know,
somebody didn't ask me, so faith waits. No, faith waits. But when
faith sees a need, it jumps in without waiting to be asked.
Faith that does not work is not faith God gave. Faith works by
love. And I'm thankful for your works
of faith. This is not my ministry by any
stretch of the imagination. This is our ministry. It takes
all of us working by faith for this ministry, for God's glory
and the good of his people. The work of faith. The eighth
word that describes the church that's in God is labor of love. That's what Paul says in verse
3, in your labor of love. Now the local church that's in
God loves. We love God because he first
loved us. And we love Christ. How can you
not? He loved you and gave himself
for you. Of course you love him. And we love the people of Christ.
We love those that Christ loves. But look in 1 John chapter 3.
The only reason that we don't love is we're dead. If we don't
love others, it's because we're still dead. 1 John 3 verse 14. Now, here's how we know that
we've passed from death unto life. Because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abides in death." Here's how we know that we've passed from
spiritual death to spiritual life. We love the brother. We love each other. And when
we love, love always acts. The love of Christ constraineth
us. The love of Christ urges us and
compels us to act. Believers love Christ. Believers follow Christ. Believers
worship Christ. That's their nature. But now
the only way you can serve Christ, the only way, is by serving His
people. The Lord Jesus is not on this
earth that you can serve Him anymore. You have never seen
Him. You can't serve Him. You can't
add anything to Him, to His glory, to His person. But you can serve
His people. Look at Hebrews chapter 6. We
serve God, we serve the Lord by serving his people. Hebrews
6 verse 10. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and your labor of love which you've showed toward
his name. Well, how'd you do that? In that
you've ministered to the saints and do minister. That's how we
serve God. This labor of love is showed
by ministering to the saints. Good works are works that are
done for the glory of God and for the good of the body of Christ,
for the good of believers. You know, people, Calvinists
are awful afraid of good works. I mean, just awful afraid of
good works. Well, don't be so afraid of good works that you
don't do any. Don't be so afraid of good works that you don't
serve at all. Look for an opportunity to serve. If we're not serving
others, we're not serving God. The only way we serve him is
by serving his people. And love does not just say, all
right, what's required? What's the minimum requirement?
And that's what I'll do. Love doesn't do that. The Pharisees
do that. The Pharisees didn't love anybody
but themselves. The Pharisees look for the minimum amount I
can do. Love does not ask, what's the minimum amount I can get
away with? And love doesn't wait to be asked. Love does everything
it possibly can do without being asked. And when it is asked,
it gives everything it's got. Because that's what love is.
The ninth word that describes the church that's in God is patience
of hope. Verse 3, remembering without
ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love, and patience of
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Believers have a good hope. Have a good hope through grace.
Well, if Christ is your hope of salvation, you've got a good
hope, don't you? He's the only Savior of sinners.
What better hope can you have than the hope of salvation in
Christ? Christ is a sure hope. He's the anchor that's steadfast
and sure. So that we say with David, I
shall not be moved. Now, I'm not saying I shall not
be moved because I'm strong and you can't move me. No, that's
not so. I shall not be moved because
Christ The rock of ages shall never be moved. And God's planting
my feet on him. So I shall not be moved. That's
a good hope. Well, if Christ is your hope,
you know you've got this good hope. Then you patiently wait
for him, don't you? You patiently continue to call
him. You continue to wait on him to
save. You patiently wait on him to
keep you. I can't keep myself. I patiently
wait on Him because I know He will. I know He'll keep me. I
patiently wait on Him to return again. Boy, I look forward to
that day, don't you, Mike? But He's coming. I don't have
to doubt if He's coming. I patiently wait on Him to come.
I know He will. If Christ is your hope, you can
patiently endure times of trouble and trial. Now, it doesn't take
the pain of the trial away, does it? It hurts. But that trial
won't make me lose my salvation. Damn, I know how this thing's
going to end. And I can be patient. I've used this illustration before,
but I happened to get it yesterday. I finished my notes, and I haven't
watched a Kentucky basketball game hardly this year. But I
turned it on. The game was on. It was close, you know. I thought,
I don't think I'll watch this. But I recorded it. And then I
waited a little bit and I saw they won. So then I went back,
I watched overtime. Oh, it was pleasant. I just knew
y'all were having a heart attack. I wasn't. I know how this thing's
going to end. And I just patiently waited for
it to end. Look at Romans chapter 8. If we know how this thing's
going to end, we're looking to Christ. That's how we'll patiently
wait. Because he's a good hope. Romans 8 verse 24. For we're saved by hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it. If we have a good
hope, we'll patiently wait the patience of hope. So I thank
God for you. I thank God for your faithfulness.
You've begun well. Now you have, you've begun well.
We'll see that you patiently continue. and end well. Look
at Galatians chapter 6. See that you end well. Galatians 6 verse 9. Let us not be weary in well doing,
for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. And as we have
therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially
unto them who are of the household of faith. That's a mark of the
church that's in God. And the last mark, end of verse
three in our text. The last word that describes
the church that's in God is genuine. Remembering without ceasing your
work of faith, your labor of love and patience of hope in
our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father.
You see, all this is genuine. This giving of thanks, our prayers,
our work of faith, our labor of love, our patience of hope.
That's not just religious put-on that we put on in the sight of
each other. It's in the sight of God, our Father, who sees
all and is not deceived. He knows it's genuine because
He put it in us, didn't He? If you have this, you know it's
because He put it in you. Well, that's a mark of the church
that's in God. And we'll be thankful, won't
we? All right. The Lord bless that to you. We'll
pick up there next week.