Turn back to 1 Thessalonians
2. Title of this message, Receiving
the Word of God as the Word of God. That caught my attention. Paul said there in verse 13,
I'm going to pick up in verse 9 where I left off last week,
but he says in verse 13, For this cause also, thank we God,
without ceasing, Because when you received the word of God
which you heard from us, of us, when we preached the gospel to
you, you received it not as the word of men. And you know that
word, two words there, it and as, have been supplied by the
translators to make it read better. But you can read it like this.
When you received the word of God which you heard of us, you
received not the word of men. But as it is in truth, the word
of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. As Frank taught the class this
morning, and read from Romans chapter one, and many of those
things that he read would be just detestable to most men and
women. But that's the word of God, isn't
it? I listened to that this morning. I thought, this is the Word of
God. And this is the truth. And this is what we've received.
We've received the Word of God. But now let me start back in
verse 9. We have a picture here. We have
actually Paul's testimony of his conduct among them when he
was in Thessalonica, when he went there to preach. I think
every Every, as I read this, this past week, I thought every
pastor ought to read this often. Ought to read this chapter, this
chapter right here often. Now Paul says, we labored in
their first night at no charge to you. They were not mercenaries. They were preachers of the gospel.
They were ambassadors of Christ. Paul proved his love to that
church by his conduct. Love is proved by conduct. And
Paul proved his love to them by his conduct. And he labored
for them like a father. I thought about this sitting
here. I thought he labored in preaching the gospel to them.
He said we labor night and day. During the day, he made tents. And during the night time and
the evening hours, he preached the gospel to them. And he just
wore himself out doing this. And I thought, Like a father
labors to put bread on the table so his children can eat. Paul
said, we are laboring that we can put the bread, the gospel,
the word of life on the table for you to eat. He said, we labored
night and day. And you're witnesses. He said,
you're witnesses of our conduct. You know our conduct among you. Paul was not afraid to call God
in as a witness. So I thought, you know, preaching
here and pastoring, there should never be a time that I'd be afraid
to call God in as a witness. Paul said, God is witness about
my conduct. God's witness. He knows my heart.
He knows how much I love. He knows my sincerity in preaching
the gospel to you. He knows my motive in preaching.
He not only said, you're witnesses, but God's witness. And we exhort
and comfort you, he said, like a father. You know, a father
gives his best advice, if you want to use that word, to his
children. Sometimes, sometimes, when I
really don't know which way to go, what to do, sometimes I think,
what would I tell Jeremy for Jason to do? And you'd be surprised
how that clears up. I take myself out of it. I take
the emotions out of it. And I think, what would I tell
them to do? And it's amazing how you get
an answer when you take yourself and you put your children in
that place. And Paul says, you're like a father. He says in verse
11, as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged everyone
in you as a father, He said, this is my heart to you, like
a father would to his children. And notice what he says here,
that you walk worthy of God. Here's my instructions to you.
As a father would give to his children, walk worthy of God. You know, I find myself in preaching. I like to preach on election.
particular redemption. I like to preach on justification.
I like to preach on those things. Great doctrines of the gospel. But let's not forget this. Walk
worthy of God. That hit me when I read that.
Walk worthy of God. Let your conduct become worthy
of being called a son or daughter of the King. To walk in such a manner is not
to bring reproach on the name of our Father. Not to be an embarrassment
to the family. You know, I can say this. There were some things that I
did not do when I was a young boy, teenager, because I didn't
want to embarrass my dad. There were some things I didn't
do because I didn't want to embarrass my dad and my mother. I didn't
want to embarrass them. And Paul says, walk worthy. Oh,
how much more, our Heavenly Father. How much more? Walk worthy of
Him. Never does the Word of God give
us an excuse to walk otherwise. Never. For note what He has done
here for us. He's called you. Called you. Called you by His grace. Effectually. He's called you by His Spirit.
He's called you lovingly like a father would call his children. He's called you. And notice where
He's called you to. Unto His kingdom and glory. He's called you to His kingdom,
His kingdom of grace. Well, that's better than His
kingdom of darkness, isn't it? No comparison. No comparison. He's called you to His kingdom
of grace, His kingdom of righteousness. He's called you to the kingdom
of His dear Son. That's what He's called you to. You're not of this world no more.
You're in the world, but you're not of the world. You're in it,
but you're not of it. He's called you. God's called
you to His kingdom. Think where He's called you to.
His kingdom. And without a walk has already
been in that kingdom, for we are. We are in the kingdom of
God now. Not going to be. Now. Every believer
is in the kingdom of God now. And He's called you to His kingdom
and glory. Scripture says, now are we the
sons of God. My, what honor. What glory. I'm looking And this makes this
a heavy responsibility. I'm looking at sons and daughters
of the king. Last night, going over my notes,
I thought I'm going to be preaching in the morning to a people whom
the Lord of glory died for. I'm going to be preaching to
a people whom God Almighty loves. He died for, He suffered for,
He's risen for, That's who I'm preaching to this morning. Now
are you the sons of God. I'm preaching to the sons and
daughters of the King. Take it seriously. And if you're called
unto His kingdom and glory, we are going to be like Him. We're
going to be like Him. I asked Mike to sing the song
at the end of it. Oh, that will be glory for me. We are going to stand in His
glorious presence. What did I read to you back over
in Psalm 1? With the ungodly, it's not so. But with you who believe God,
you've received the Word of God as the Word of God, you're going
to stand in His glorious presence. We've been called to this. Now
listen. Listen to this. We are not just going to visit
His kingdom like tourists. You know how tourists They walk
around, they look at everything. They're just taking it all in,
what they see. We're not going to just look
at His glory. We're going to be partakers of
it. We're going to be partakers of it. Not just visit like a tourist
and look at it. Partakers of His glory. And Paul gives another reason
here for giving for His giving of thanks." He said, when you
receive the Word of God, which He heard of us, He received
it not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word
of God. When they heard Paul preach the
Word, they received it. They bowed
to it. They bowed to it. They obeyed
it as the Word of God. They didn't compare it to Plato
or Socrates. They didn't put Paul in that
group. This is what Plato believed.
This is what Socrates believed. This is not what the Romans believed.
No! It's not what Paul believed. It's what God said. This is the
Word of God. It's the Word of God. I believe the reason that so
many so-called Christians are so slack, don't seem as interested
or as faithful, is because when they received it, they received
it as the Word of men. And that has very little effect.
They didn't receive it as the Word of God. The man may have
been a good speaker, a good communicator, But a disciple, he looks into
the Word, because he believes this is the Word. This is infallible.
Do you believe this is infallible? This is absolutely infallible,
the Word of God. And a disciple looks into the
Word, for he believes it with all his heart. He believes this
is the Word of God. He doesn't take his reasoning
to the Word of God. He goes to the Word of God and
then gets his reasoning and understanding. We get our understanding from
the Word of God. We don't do the opposite. Human
reasoning and logic will always reject the Word of God. It will
always put a question mark on it. But when we receive it as
the Word of God, we take man out of it, don't we? Even though
God sends men to preach it, we take men out of it because it's
the Word of God. And he listens. He listens to
the preacher as one sent of God to preach the Word. Paul said,
you received it as the Word of God, as though God Himself stood
here and spoke to you. Ambassadors. They didn't question. They received. They did not dispute. They didn't
put a put question marks on it and dispute with it. That's what
the Jews did. That's what the religious people
did. The religionists, they disputed
with it because it did not fit their way of thinking. Your thoughts
are not my thoughts. And when you come up against
somebody like that, then you're going to have a dispute. Well,
that's not the way it's supposed to be. But it's the Word of God.
That's the way it is. That's the way it is. No matter
what I think it's supposed to be or not, it is. They didn't
dispute. They received it. Here's what happened. They first
heard the Word of God. They heard the Gospel. He's talking
about the Gospel. They heard what we heard this
morning about the total depravity of man. We heard of the wretched
nature of man. And they received it. They said,
you're right, Paul. You're right. They heard of Jesus
Christ being the Son of God. And they believed it. They believed
Him to be the Messiah. They heard of Jesus Christ being
the righteousness of His people. That His righteousness is the
righteousness by which we are accepted and stand before God.
They received it. They didn't dispute with it.
They didn't fight it. They received it. Paul said,
you received it as the Word of God. When Paul preached, Christ crucified
to them. They bowed to the Lord. They
bowed to Him. They received Him. To receive
the Word of God is to receive God. To receive the written Word
is to receive the living Word. You can't separate them. You
cannot separate the living Word and the written Word. If you
will not receive this, Then don't tell me you received Christ.
But that's not possible. That's not possible. But to truly
receive the Word of God in the heart is to receive Christ, the
living Word of God. It's the same. It's the same. He said, here's what he's saying,
you were willing, you were willing to listen, and after you listened,
You embraced it. You embraced the Word of God. It's just not another book to
you. This is not another book. This is the Word of God Almighty. And their actions proved it.
Their actions, their conduct proved it. They wanted more of
it. They said, I like this. This
is what we need. If there's anything we need,
it's the Word of God. Because in having the Word of
God as the Word of God, we have God. We have Him. Now, when a man receives the
Word of God as the Word of God, he believes the truth and no
lies of the truth. He believes the truth. And he
listens. And I believe he's very dogmatic
in his faith. It's not, well, you believe this,
and I believe this, and it'll be all right. It won't. One of them's right and one of
them's wrong. It's that dogmatic. Somebody's right and somebody's
wrong. Black is black and white is white. There's no gray areas
in between. And that man is not like the
waves of the sea anymore, tossed to and fro with every wind of
God. He knows whom he believes. When he receives the Word of
God, he knows whom he believes. And that man is not tossed to
and fro. He's like, well, I don't know if I believe election or
not. I have a man tell me this. He
said, well, I don't really believe it like you believe it. Well, I said, well, is it the
Word? It's not how I believe it. It's
not how you believe it. How does the Word of God teach
it? How does the Word of God teach it? That's how we believe
it. That's how. There's no mixing
of the truth and the lie, and you come up with the gospel.
That's just not so. Salvation is either all of grace,
one thousand percent, or it's all of worse. It's one or the other. It's either
all His righteousness or it's all your righteousness. It's
one or the other. There's no mixture. There's a
real difference between a man's Word and God's Word. I had written down here, one
is true. And this morning, going back over this, I had to change
that. I said one is truth. One is true. It's true, but it's
truth. is truth, and the other is not, if it's the word of a
man only. But here's something else I thought
about last night. If you receive the gospel as the word of a man, when trouble comes, you'll not
find that comfort. That comfort won't be there when
you need it, if you receive it as the Word of a man only. But
if you receive it as the Word of God, when trials come and
trouble comes, that Word brings comfort. Because Paul says here,
it works in you effectually. When you receive the Word of
God as the Word of God, then you with full confidence, absolute
confidence, can say, all things work together for good because
God said so. And you will find comfort in
that. When you receive it as the Word
of God, it will comfort you. It will comfort you in trials
and troubles, and when you don't know which way to go, you'll
find comfort from this Word. But if you receive it as the
Word of men, you'll think, The comfort won't be there when
it ought to be. And then when we receive the
gospel as the Word of God, we receive it as the Word of God
with the deepest reverence. We have a reverence for the Word
of God because it's the Word of God, it's God. It's His Word. And then we also
receive it. When we receive it as the Word
of God, we receive it with much assurance. That word means much
confidence. That's what Paul said over here
in chapter 1. Here in verse 5. Listen over
here in verse 5. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance. Not much assurance that I'm saved. He's not talking about assurance
of salvation. He's talking about assurance that it's the Word
of God. This is the gospel. I'll tell you what, this is the
gospel or there's not any. This is the Word of God or there's
not any. This Word is infallible or it's not the Word of God if
it's not infallible. You receive it, he said, Complete
confidence that what I preached unto you is not from me. It's not something we came up
with. It's of God. It's God's gospel. It's the everlasting gospel.
And Paul says here, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
When the word of God comes in power, It works effectually. It works
effectually in them that believe. It produces a good effect inwardly. It creates faith and
repentance in the heart when it's received as the Word of
God. That's what it does. It gives light. The entrance
of Thy Word gives light. Thy Word is a lamp to my feet. And then it's the seed used in
the new birth. This is the seed that God uses,
God the Holy Spirit uses, when a man is born again, a man or
woman is born again. And it guides and it directs those in whose
hearts it's planted. It works in you effectually. It works in you. It's a life,
it's a living Word. Christ said, the words that I
speak, they're what? They are spirit and they are
life. When men speak, they speak dead
things, don't they? Dead things come out of their
mouth. What they speak is dead and death. When the Lord speaks,
it's life, real life. and it's effectual. And it works
and it's at work in the heart of every one of His children.
When you leave here today, when you leave here today, this Word
that you have received will go with you. By the Spirit of God, you'll
be called to meditate upon it day and night. Think upon it. There's not a day goes by That
you who believe the gospel, that you don't think upon Christ.
There's not a day goes by that you do not think upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. That you do not think upon eternity.
That you don't think upon these things. That's the Word of God. The Holy Spirit taking the Word
of God and working in you effectually. He doesn't work apart from the
Word. The Holy Spirit does not work apart from the Word of God.
He takes the Word of God. Christ said, He'll take the things
of mine and show it to you. And all those things that he
shows to us come right out of this book. Come right out of
the Word of God. And it produces, it produces
family likeness in all of God's children. You notice what Paul
says here? Listen. You became followers of the churches
of God where? in Judea. They'd never met those
people. They'd never met those Jews across the water. If you'll notice, Paul didn't
say, you became followers of the church of Rome. No. The first
example of the church was in Judea. In Judea. You became just like all the
other local churches which are in Christ in other places. You all became alike. You don't
know each other. But there's a real likeness.
Because they all had the same father. We had somewhat of a
family reunion back past Thanksgiving. And some of the people that saw
me said, well, you look just like your dad. Well, you're looking
more like your dad, the older you're getting. He said, you're
looking just like your dad. Well, I ought to. I ought to. You're just like your father.
It doesn't matter if you're in Judea, or if you're in Rome. It doesn't matter if you're in
Africa, or in Mexico, or in Ashland. You're just alike. It produces
the same family likeness in every one of them. They all love the
same Father, called by the same grace, called to the same kingdom,
and called to the same glory. The same gospel is revealed to
you, You don't believe a different gospel. We believe the same gospel.
There's only one. Only one. Oh, he says, you're just like
them. Even though they had not met the other places or other
churches, they were just like them. And he said, you suffered
the same trouble over the gospel that others have suffered. We're
not suffering anything differently than anyone else has suffered
already in the past. We'll never suffer anything differently.
We'll always suffer the same. I'll tell you what this does.
When you receive the Word of God as the Word of God, it produces
the same character whether you're a Jew or a Gentile. It produces
the same character. And Paul says here, and he lays
a heavy charge against those Jews. who both killed the Lord Jesus
and their own prophets, and have persecuted us, they please not
God, and are contrary to all men. Try, trying as best they could, to kill the glory of God, and
to keep Gentiles like us from being saved. Forbidding us to
speak to the Gentiles, he said. These religious people, Spurgeon
wrote this, their bigotry destroyed their humanity. Their bigotry
destroyed their humanity. They so hated everyone that was
not a Jew. They wanted the whole human race
to perish except them. Forbidding us to speak to the
Gentiles that they might be saved. To fill up their sins always
where the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. But we
brethren, Paul said, here's our heart, here's my heart. And when
he says we, he's talking about Silas and Timothy was with him.
Being taken from you. That word taken. Here's what
he's saying. We were orphanized. We were orphaned. We were taken, like you would
take children from their parents. Just take them. He said, we were
taken from them in presence, but not in heart. He said, our
hearts are with you. You can't destroy that. He said, our hearts
are with you. It's with you. Even though Satan
hindered us, and God allows that for a purpose. We know that.
We understand that. But you're our crown. You're
the seal of our apostleship, but you're our crown and rejoicing. I don't know of anything that rejoices the heart of God's
people, especially pastors. I've seen the family together,
and especially, especially, when we gather around His throne. All those you preach to, he said,
you're a joy to me. You're a joy to me. All these
hardships I endure, he said, Paul endured a lot of hardships.
He said, you're our joy. When I think upon you, you're
our joy, you're our crown of rejoicing before the Lord Jesus.