Good morning, everyone. It's
good to see you. Welcome to our service. My name
is Peter Mennie. I'm sure that most of you know
who I am. And it's lovely to be here to
just share with you today. I want to thank you for inviting
me to minister, especially under the circumstances, especially
today. I am grateful for the opportunity
to share with you in this weekend of special services that you
have had. And it's a real privilege to
be in your new building and to share the newness and the novelty
and the excitement with you at this time. and I hope that this
building will prove to be a blessing to you. I trust that the Lord
will encourage you and he will give you that sense of purpose
that a facility like this can have in a community. I trust
that your fellowship will prosper. I trust that you will find that
you will have a helpful gospel witness to the people around
about in this community. So thank you very much for this
opportunity and this welcome. I say thank you Because I appreciate
that it's you who invited me here. I appreciate that it was
you who organized and enabled this weekend of events and called
those who would participate. So after all, who else would
I thank? It would be foolish of me, for
example, to go and knock your next door neighbor's door and
say, thank you very much for inviting me to this place, because
they had nothing to do with it. It would be foolish for me to
go out into the street and stop the first passerby and say, thank
you for inviting me to your little village here. It's really great
to be here. They would wonder what I was
talking about. They would have no idea what
I was thinking about. because they had nothing to do
with me being here. They probably don't even have
any knowledge of the fact that I am here. They'd wonder what
I was talking about. I thanked you because you were
the ones who made this happen. That's obvious, right? And yet how many people fail
to translate that self-evident principle into spiritual terms? Not the Apostle Paul. He knew
where gratitude ought to be placed. He knew where it was to be directed
when it came to spiritual things. He said, for example, in 2 Thessalonians
1, verse 3, he said, we are bound to thank God always for you. Brethren, as it is meet, as it
is appropriate, we are bound. There is a compulsion on us to
thank God for you. That's what's appropriate, because
that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one
of you all toward each other aboundeth." Paul thanked the
Lord for the growth of faith, and he thanked the Lord for the
exercise of love that was amongst the brethren. Why didn't he thank the Thessalonians?
Why didn't he thank the people to whom he was writing? After
all, it was them who were exhibiting the love between one another. Because he knew, he knew where
thanks needed to be made. He knew that from conception
to expression, all spiritual life, all spiritual growth, every
spiritual grace comes from the Lord. We are but sinners, we
are unable, incapable of responding positively to the things of the
Lord, except He enable and facilitate those things in us. So for the
presence of any grace, In the life of a believer, the Lord
is to be thanked. And I find it interesting, even
those who make passionate defense of man's free will in salvation
can't bring themselves to thank the individual, to thank their
converts when they submit to or comply with their requests
to trust in the Lord. Even although they put so much
emphasis on the individual's free will to make the decisions
that are going to open up their heart and bring all the grace
and privileges of spiritual well-being into their souls, they still,
despite themselves, thank the Lord for those things, at least
most that I have heard do so. Even they can't stomach the idea
of thanking a dead sinner for exercising their free will and
coming to Christ. And yet if they truly believed that faith in Christ is an act
of man's free will, then why shouldn't they do that? Shouldn't
we be thanking one another for coming to Christ? Shouldn't we
be thanking one another for the sanctifying graces that exist
in our lives? Being, as they are said to be,
a product of man's free will? That would make sense, I think.
Why thank the Lord for what someone else does? But here's the thing,
and we all need to know this, there is nothing in us, there
is nothing in our flesh that can in any way please God. Anything that is good in us,
everything that is spiritual about us has to come from the
Lord himself. Now, I trust this is self-evident
to us. Paul is exactly right when he
says, we are bound to give thanks unto the Lord. In 2 Thessalonians
1, verse 3, he says, we are bound to give thanks unto the Lord
always for you, brethren, as it is meet because that your
faith groweth exceedingly and the charity of every one of you
all toward each other aboundeth." Thanks where thanks is due, right? That's good. That's a good principle. Thanks where thanks is due. And
Paul continues in the next chapter to emphasize that exact point. The Thessalonians were not going
to be left in any doubt about this matter as far as the apostle
was concerned. And he goes on in the next chapter
to emphasize this reality. He says, here is something else
that we are bound to give thanks for. So if you've got your Bibles,
turn with me please to the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians. And I just want to read a few
verses from verse 13 on. Here's another thing that the
Apostle Paul says, we are bound to give thanks to God for. We are bound, verse 13, 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13, we are bound to give thanks always to God for
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which
ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now the
Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath
loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word
and work. Amen. The apostle's clear, isn't he?
Thanks where thanks is due. We're bound to give thanks always
for you, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. So once again, the apostle is
clear. Thank you, Lord, that from the
beginning, you chose these Thessalonian Gentiles. Thank you, Lord, that
from the beginning, you elected, you chose, you set apart these
heathen idol worshipers. to be your people from the beginning. You see, the Thessalonians were
not being taught any free will doctrine here. The Thessalonians
were being taught exactly where thanks is due, for what it was
due, and it was directed to the Lord. He says, thank you for
your election of grace. We thank the Lord for your election
of grace. We thank the Lord for loving
you everlastingly for setting up Christ to be your Redeemer
and that he atoned for your sins. He goes on, he thanks the Father
and he thanks the Holy Spirit. He says, thank you, Holy Spirit,
for setting these same poor, helpless souls apart in sanctification
in the covenant of grace and peace to the end that they might
learn of Christ, that they might believe the truth, that they
might hear the gospel concerning the Lord Jesus Christ's divinity,
concerning his sacrifice, concerning his true nature, concerning his
sin-cleansing blood, that they might learn of Christ. Thank
you, Holy Spirit, for quickening these individuals, for calling
them through the gospel into union with the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the promise of heavenly glory. And he says, thank you to the
Lord Jesus Christ as well, that these who once were strangers
have been reconciled to God by the death of the Lord Jesus on
the cross, that they have been made holy and without blame and
caused to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Thank you, God,
for doing so. Not you will note a single word
or expression of gratitude from Paul towards the Thessalonians. Why would he? It was nothing
to do with them. They were the passive recipients
of all God's grace. It was not of their doing, these
blessings that they possessed. It was not even of their desire.
They hadn't intended, they hadn't willed it, they hadn't sought
it. But in the grace of God, through the preaching of the
gospel, the Holy Spirit had worked a work of salvation and conversion
in the lives of these individuals. and Paul thanked God for it. You see, salvation is all of
God's free grace. Any good that exists in us, any
blessedness that we possess, any spiritual growth or development
must come from the Lord. It is given for his glory, and
it is given for his people's good. And I trust that that is
a familiar note to you. I believe it is. I believe these
are the principles upon which this little congregation exists. The fact that salvation is of
the Lord. And Paul here is recognizing
that from start to finish, or as he puts it, from beginning
to end, From election to the glory in heaven, salvation is
by the grace of God alone. There's no part of it which is
even to the slightest extent dependent upon the individual,
determined by the individual, by the will of man, by the works
of the flesh. And if we understand this, then
we know the gospel. If we grasp what Paul is saying
and teaching here, then we understand that all that has been put in
place, all that God has done from beginning to end, from start
to finish, has been done by him at his will, according to his
good purpose, for the blessing and well-being of those that
he loves. This is the good news of God's
saving grace. This is the message that will
comfort and encourage and bless those who need their sins forgiven,
those who need a saviour. We know the gospel if we know
these truths. Let's see it in the scripture.
The first thing that the apostle Paul said here was that God had
chosen them from the beginning. Paul says, I thank God that he
has, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation. This is God's
work of election. Let me just read a couple of
verses from the beginning of Ephesians to you. It says here
in Ephesians 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. having predestinated
us unto adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. See, the Apostle Paul, when he
was writing to these apostolic churches or these churches during
the time of the apostles, He was clear, he was emphatic, he
did not leave any doubt in these matters. I do wonder so often
about the widespread emphasis of man's involvement in spiritual
growth and even in the inception of spiritual life in the individual. That widespread view that is
around in churches today, it seems so contrary to the self-evident
statements of Scripture and the Apostle Paul. Election, Paul
clearly says, is the choice of God's sovereign grace to save
some of Adam's race. To save them from their sins,
to save them from eternal death, without any prior consideration
of their personal merit. That is, without any consideration
of their potential merit or pre-known merit. That's an odd, awkward
phrase, isn't it? Why would I use something like
that? Well, just for this reason. that
any time we start to speak about election, any time we start to
speak about God's choice from the beginning, someone somewhere
is bound to say that God looked into the future saw how each
individual would respond to the gospel and chose them on that
basis to believe it when the gospel came to them in time. so that you get this big sort
of circle being taught as the way of explaining election, that
in some way God's foreknowledge anticipated what people would
do of their own free will, and therefore he chose them to receive
his gift of grace. Now this is just so much arrant
nonsense that it is almost embarrassing to have to speak about it. This
is, again, the way that man, with his own self-centered ideas
about religion and spiritual ability, wants to make God compliant
with us when the truth of the matter is that we are all subject
to God. It is sheer make-believe. It
cannot be supported by scripture. It is not supported by experience
and even simple logic. tells us that cause and effect
cannot work in that way. The Bible explicitly rejects
this idea. The Apostle Paul writing to the
Romans says, for the children not yet being born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. Paul says, when
we were enemies, when we were enemies, not when the Lord knew
that we wanted to accept it, but when we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of his son. When we were
yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. When we were yet dead in sins,
hath he quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are
saved. If our salvation in any way hinges
on our merit, actual or foreknown, we would have cause to glory
in ourselves. We would have reason for pride. We could not thank God for the
salvation because at least in some part it would be because
of something that we have done, something that we desire. To
some extent it would be deserved, earned by some criteria. And if we have this notion that
in something we do, in something we desire, in something we will,
there is that which distinguishes us from those who are not saved,
then we are deceiving ourselves. Let me state it as a principle. as to what grace is. If there's
any part of our blessedness before God, any portion of our eternal
happiness secured by our works or by our will, then we are not
saved by grace. If there's anything of fallen
sinful flesh in our coming to God, we shall be consumed by
His holiness. We can have no cause to glory
in his presence. If it's from, as Paul says, the
beginning, we are bound to give thanks to God. who from the beginning
has chosen thee, then there is nothing before the beginning.
If the choice of God is from the beginning, then that choice
cannot be determined upon something that God previously knew would
happen afterwards. It is from the beginning that
the Lord has chosen us and no prior assumption affected that
choice or influenced the free election of God. God the Father
is to be thanked for the sovereign election of sinners like us to
salvation. Second thing that the Apostle
Paul says in this context is, that he tells the Thessalonians
that these brethren were beloved of God, that the ground, the
reason, the foundation, the source of this elective choice of God
that is from the beginning was the love that he had, the divine
love, not man's free will. Divine love of God is the cradle
of grace and salvation for sinners like us. God's everlasting love,
God's distinguishing, unconditional love that forms and effects the
plan of salvation and the purpose of grace. God's love sent the
Lord Jesus Christ to die for those whom he had chosen to life.
Romans 5.8 says, God commendeth his love towards us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And by this love, we
are not only chosen in Christ, but we are adopted into the family
of God. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. It is all of grace for which
God is to be thanked. And thirdly, the apostle tells
them, we are chosen through sanctification of the spirit. All those chosen
by God in eternal election were set apart by God the Holy Spirit
in Christ in the covenant purpose of God to bring his people to
himself. and they are declared to be righteous,
not on the basis of their own efforts or their works or their
will, but declared to be righteous upon the merits of the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their names, we're told, are
from the beginning written in the book of life of the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. The writing of names
in that context isn't really to be thought of as a real book
with names written down in it in a big long list like a school
register. But the purpose is still the
same. These are distinguished individuals
that are known by name and it is a precise number. That's the
significance of that picture. The writing of the names implies
a definite number. And that the book belongs to
the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Lamb, tells us that these are
Christ's people appointed by God to be saved by his blood,
he being the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Not every individual in the world,
elsewise no one would go to hell. but all those that God had chosen
to bless, all those elect in the world. And this is our justification
in the sight of God. This great work in the covenant
purposes of God is what brings us under the blessings and benefits
of justification. Paul says in Romans 5, for as
by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. The Holy Spirit
set apart God's elect in Christ, and God imputed to them, in Christ,
that righteousness of God that made them fit for his presence,
that reconciled them to him, that brought him into that family
relationship with them, and made them his own. He imputes that
righteousness of God and they are declared to be righteous
independent of their works, independent of their actions, independent
of their own will. They're reconciled upon the merits
of Christ's sacrifice and their atonement is assured. Atonement just means brought
together to be one at one minute. It's literally what it breaks
down to be. The syllables tell you exactly
what it means. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished for us on the cross. That's what he did.
He brought us to God. And that justifying work where
God looks upon that people and sees them is bound up there in
the everlasting covenant. Just as Christ was made sin for
us without ever doing anything sinful, So we are made righteous
in him without ever having done anything good. He hath made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Christ stood in the place of
those chosen and sanctified people as their substitute. He stood
as surety for them in the eternal counsel of the Godhead. and his redemption of that people
on the cross there that day when he died, it was a particular
effectual ransom, redemption of God's elect out from under
the curse of the law by the death in our place of the Lord Jesus. It's a completed work, it's a
done work. Man does nothing to make redemption
complete or add anything to it to make it effectual. The Lord
Jesus Christ redeemed by his death, those for whom he died
from death and hell, all those that the Father had chosen to
salvation, all those that the Spirit had set apart and sanctified
in the covenant of grace. For all these things, for election,
for sanctification, for our justification, The Lord is to be thanked because
all these gifts are freely given to those whom he chose in Christ. And Paul tells us that this saving
work of God also includes regeneration. and our calling through the work
of the Spirit in the preaching of the gospel and our conversion. He says in verse 13 and 14 of
our passage here in 2 Thessalonians, God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel. And this work
of regeneration, this work of making us alive, making us spiritually
aware. is the spiritual resurrection
of dead sinners to life because the scriptures tell us we are
dead in our sins. We are opposed to God. We are at enmity against God. We are rebellious. There is no
desire. There is no longing after the
things of God in the natural man. It has to be placed there. It has to be put there. It has
to be created. by a spiritual work of God. And that's what we talk about
with regeneration. We are called from death to life. And again, the apostle is clear
in the extent and nature of the gospel that he is declaring to
these Thessalonians. John says, actually, John, the
apostle John, in his gospel, chapter five, verily, verily,
I say unto you, it's Christ that's speaking, he that heareth my
word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life
and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto
life. That's the work of regeneration,
bringing us to life as the gospel is preached and believed in the
heart of a sinner. The dead sinner, even here, is
utterly passive, doing nothing to bring himself to spiritual
life. Repentance, faith, conversion
are the results of the new birth, not its cause. Holiness is imparted
to the child of God in regeneration. We don't make ourselves holy,
we don't make ourselves holier. by our works following our regeneration. The holy seed is implanted. The holy nature is created and
it bears fruit unto God. Not by the energy of the flesh,
but by the power of the spirit. Belief of the truth is belief
in the gospel. It is believing the gospel that
Christ preached, that the apostles preached, that Paul carried to
Ephesus and to Corinth and to Thessalonica and to all of the
other places where he preached this word. There were those whom
the Spirit prepared, there were those whom the Spirit quickened,
and they believed the truth when they heard it. It's the belief
in this apostolic gospel that gospel that declares how that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was
buried and that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures. It's a spirit who grants faith
and opens our eyes to see Christ as our Lord and as our saviour. And even our regeneration and
conversion is all of grace for which God alone is to be thanked. And so too for continuance in
the faith. So too for us going on in the
Christian life. Perseverance, as it is sometimes
called, is the believer's continuance in grace, having been brought
to a knowledge of the truth through the preaching of the gospel by
that work that powerful work of God, the Holy Spirit in an
individual's life, so that individual is preserved in the following
days. And they may have some pretty
low lows and some pretty high highs, but it is the perseverance
of the Lord's people spiritually that the Apostle Paul was speaking
of here. Perseverance is necessary. But
it isn't our work. It's the work of Christ who gives
us eternal life, who holds us safe in his hand, who will not
let us go. Having loved us, having died
for us, having given himself for us, he will not forgo that
which he has purchased. He will not give up that which
he has died for. Having loved us and died for
us, he will keep us. My sheep hear my voice. I know
them. They follow me. I give unto them
eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And then lastly,
the apostle refers to heaven. Not explicitly, but he talks
about the glory that is laid up for us. And heaven is the
promise of glory for the Lord's people whom he has chosen from
the beginning and will accomplish everything necessary to bring
them into his presence in the end. It is the reward of righteousness. It is granted to those who are
chosen in Christ, loved in Christ, set apart in Christ, justified,
sanctified, redeemed by Christ, and who persevere to the end. It's given to men and women.
It's given to boys and girls in all of its blessed fullness. Not because of anything we do.
And let me just say, not in various degrees. There's another thing
that the preachers of free will and man's involvement and man's
engagement, they'll tell you that, well, there's different
rewards in heaven for how hard you've tried on earth. I can't
find that in the scriptures. but the Lord is pleased to give
all his people those blessings according to his own goodwill
and pleasure. It is given to men and women
in its blessed fullness, not because of anything that we do,
not because of anything that we've done or can ever do. We
have this promise granted to us right now if we trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It is the gift of God through
the blood and obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. and it is
the song of the saints in heaven who are equally with Paul bound
to give thanks always to God. Therefore, to make any part of
salvation dependent on works is to deny the grace of God. It is to trample underfoot the
precious blood of Christ. Paul says to the Galatians, Christ
has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified
by the law, that is, justified by anything that you do, ye are
fallen from grace. Why? Why? Why this emphasis? Why has the Lord done this? Why has the Lord from the beginning
chosen us to salvation and promised to bring us through his preserving
purpose into his presence in glory. Why is God gracious to
us? Well, our text teaches us that
God is gracious to sinners because of his love. Why is he from the
beginning chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit to belief in the truth? Why is he called us by his gospel
to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly
the cause is not found in us. The very mention of the word
grace destroys all supposed human merit. There is no beauty in
us that God hasn't placed there. There isn't any attractiveness
in us. There's no goodness, there's
no wisdom in us. There's no power in us. There's
no inclination to anything that is spiritual and holy and good. It is obvious to anyone who reads
the Bible with any spiritual illumination that fallen man
has nothing in him or about him to attract God's mercy and his
grace. And yet here we are. Those who
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, those who have trusted him, are
justified, are sanctified, are redeemed, are reconciled to God
They are holy and without blame before him in love. And the cause
of grace must be something outside of ourselves. God is gracious to us simply
because he loves us. He loved us eternally. He loved
us particularly. He loved us perfectly. and he loves us freely and graciously. He gave us his son because he
loved us. He adopted us as his children
because he loved us. He gave us his grace because
he loved us. He gave us himself because he
loved us. And for his love, for his grace,
and so great salvation, We are bound to give thanks always to
God. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.