Well I hope we've seen clearly
over recent weeks what the true gospel is, how it is salvation
from sin and peace with God, God who has made all things,
God who is holy, God who is just, God who is judge, who we must
meet one day as our judge. salvation from the sin that would
condemn us to a lost eternity. That is what the gospel is about.
And you might totally agree with everything you've heard. It's
perfectly possible. You totally agree with everything
you've heard. But that in itself does not make you a Christian.
So that you can say, which is what all true Christians can
say, I know it is well with my soul. Is that him? It is well
with my soul. So what is it to become a Christian? Everyone here who is a Christian,
everyone listening who is a Christian, can tell you that there was a
time when I wasn't a Christian, but by God's grace, I am now
a Christian. By God's grace, I am what I am,"
said Paul. Now there are all sorts, as you
know, of false ideas around in this world, the religious world
especially. Society is riddled with false
ideas about Christianity and what it is to be a Christian
and what it needs for one to go to heaven. For example, they
say, oh, you have to be born into a Christian country and
a Christian family. As a baby you have to have been
sprinkled in a church of England or a Roman Catholic church and
sprinkled with what they call holy water at a font and that
will make you a Christian. You might have grown up in more
less conformist circles and your idea is that you decided for
Christ. You came forward at some sort
of preaching convention and you made a decision for Christ. You,
as they say, asked Jesus to come into my heart, come in today,
come in to stay. You prayed those prayers. Never
mind what people say or think or tell you. What does the scripture
say? Is that not always the test?
What does the Bible say? What does the Bible say? Any
doctrine that you're presented with, any idea of religion that
you're presented with, the noble thing to do is what the Bereans
did in the Acts of the Apostles. The noble Bereans were more noble
than all the others who stoned Paul, who treated the Apostles
Terribly, what the Bereans did was, they got their Bibles out,
what they had of their Bibles, their Old Testament Scriptures,
and they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether what they
were being told was true. And that's what you must do.
Yes, listen to the voice of a preacher, but test it. Is that not what
John the Apostle tells us to do? Try the spirits, the preachers,
whether they be of God. What's the measure against which
you're going to measure them, to test them? It's the Word of
God. Is what that man is saying in accordance with the Word of
God. You can immediately rule out, is what that woman is saying,
because the Word of God forbids women to preach in the church.
Oh, that's not the modern way. I don't care what the modern
way is, what does the scripture say? Oh, but women are just as
intelligent as men. I know they are, but that scripture
says, God says, preaching is a job that he gives to men to
do. And we test everything by the
Word of God. Now, you might be weighing up
the pros and cons of being a Christian. And it is right to count the
cost. Jesus said it is right to count
the cost of being his disciple. Think about what it's going to
cost. Are you prepared to bear that cost? You know he said it's
like somebody that has a building project in mind and he doesn't
think it through carefully enough and he starts on the journey
and then he suddenly runs out of money and everybody laughs
at him because he planned a project and he couldn't finish it because
he ran out of money. You've got to count the cost,
you've got to see, am I prepared to go along with this? But really,
being a Christian, becoming a Christian, is not something you decide by
rational debate, whether that's with anybody else or with yourself.
It's rather, by God the Holy Spirit, through God's Word, because
lots of people read God's word but if the Holy Spirit doesn't
give you the enlightenment to understand spiritually what the
word of God is saying you will never see what it's saying he
comes and he enlightens your naturally darkened soul the people
that dwelled in darkness says Isaiah have seen a great light
the people that lived in darkness, darkness of soul, darkness of
understanding, darkness of not knowing that there is a God in
heaven, not knowing that there is a God who upholds all things,
not knowing that everything we see in this life is as a result
of the God who has made all things and who is the judge. We need
light to see that, and the Holy Spirit comes and gives that light.
He shines the light, as it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and
verse 6, God who shined light in the darkness at creation when
he said, let there be light, and there was light, and God
saw the light, that it was good. In the same way, God has shined
in our hearts, says Paul, the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God. Where? Where do you see the...
Oh, we'll go off on a retreat somewhere, we'll go off to this
lovely secluded place and there we'll learn about the things
they've got... No, no, no, no, no. No, you don't need to do
that, you don't need to go on a long sea journey. The word
is nigh you, it's near to you. It's in your mouth, in your heart,
it's all around, just look at it, there. You don't have to
go far. It's the gospel. If you believe in your heart
and confess with your mouth, whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. That's it, the enlightenment
that comes, the shining light of divine truth. And the Holy
Spirit comes and not only gives spiritual discernment to hear
it when others can't hear it, and to understand it when others
think it's nonsense, foolishness but to give you faith to believe
it. You know what faith is? It's
the sight of the soul to see the things of God that are hidden
from the natural man And it is the evidence of things not seen,
as Hebrews 11 verse 1 says. That faith, you know, they say,
oh, well, I can't see these things. Well, don't expect them to. It's
the evidence of things not seen is your faith. Your faith is
what causes you to see these things. How do we know that these
worlds were created by the word of God when he spoke? By science? No, it's not incompatible with
science, but it isn't by science that we understand it, it's by
faith. Hebrews 11 verse 3, by faith we see these things. We
are given spiritual eyes to see and to believe. So there are
false ideas, but the scripture tells us the truth of becoming
a Christian. Now I want to look and focus
our attention on the chapter we read, 1 Thessalonians chapter
1, to see briefly the problem and briefly again the solution
but spend most of our time looking at its six-fold application.
There may be more but I've got six things for you here. So first
of all the problem, the problem. What is the problem that the
gospel addresses? What is the problem that salvation
is all about? It's in verse 10 of 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. And it's the third to the last
word of the verse, wrath. Delivered us from the wrath to
come. There is wrath coming. What do
I mean by that? There is the anger of a holy
God against sin. That is coming. That is going
to be revealed. We saw it when we studied the
book of Revelation. a couple of years ago, 18 months
ago or so, we saw it quite clearly then. The wrath that there is
to come. Why? Because God is angry with
the wicked every day. That's what he said. Who are
the wicked? Those who do not believe in his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. God is angry with them. The wrath
that is to come. That is the problem. You see,
God is. You must believe, says the scripture,
that God is, that God exists, that there is a God, and that
he's created all things, and that he is the source of life.
If you have life and I have life, it is only because God has given
us life. Your life comes from God, and
he is holy, and he is just, and we're sinful and we're accountable
to God for our sin. He doesn't let us get on with
it. No, no. He, as the God of this universe,
demands perfection. He insists on perfection. And
he will and must punish sin. And he says, the soul that sins,
it shall die. And that is not a switching off
of the lights. You look carefully at the Scriptures,
that is an ongoing, eternal, timeless experience of the absence
of God, of the pain and torment that comes from that. It's described
in terrifying words, it's described as a lake of fire, it's described
as weeping and gnashing of teeth. These are Terms that the Lord
Jesus Christ used. That is what it is to be separated
from God for eternity. There is wrath to come, and there
is hell to come. And to be delivered from the
wrath to come, surely is something that we must all hope for. We
know it's appointed to man to die once, and then the judgment.
We know that the end is coming. If we don't die, Christ is coming
to end this world. I say, oh, that's not going to
happen. How is that going to happen? It says in the scripture
that every eye shall see him. But how is that going to be possible?
I tell you, to the eye of faith, I don't know physically how,
but it will be. Every eye shall see him. He is
coming again. He is coming back to draw all
things to a close, to defeat finally the kingdom of Satan,
to establish his unrivaled kingdom of peace and righteousness and
salvation with God. there's death of this body in
this life but then there's the second death on the day of judgment
that confinement to that hell and it is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God because he is a consuming
fire this is the problem that we have this is the natural state
of us all by nature, without exception, all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God. All of us have come short of
what God demands. All of us are guilty and condemned
before Him with a just and eternal penalty to pay. You know when
you get a fine for parking in the wrong place or for speeding
in the wrong place in your car? You know you can't get away with
it. You've got a fine to pay. They'll come and chase you and
they'll get you and they'll force you. God's justice absolutely
insists that the penalty for your sin and your rejection of
his rule is just and eternal and it will be paid, and everyone
Everyone. Scriptures tell us everyone will
justify God, will say God isn't unfair, God is perfectly just,
and will agree that his judgment is perfectly fair and right.
Do you know we are all, as Psalm 88 verse 15 says, I am afflicted
and ready to die from my youth up. Oh I've got years and years
and years. Learn what the psalmist said, I am afflicted and ready
to die from my youth up. This doesn't mean live your life
in morbid introspection, but live your life conscious of the
fact that today might be your last day. Just live your life
like that. Today might be the last day. When you wake in the morning,
today might be the last day that I live. You think of people that
have, you hear about it in the news and you say, oh well there's
so few that it's not going to happen to me, but it happens
to some. They woke one morning thinking
it was an ordinary day, and a few hours later they were no more.
They've been taken from this life. If you ever feel the weight
of that, you will cry out, how can I be right with God? or as
the Philippian jailer cried out, what must I do to be saved? He
knew he was going to die, and it wasn't the fact that his life
was going to be taken from him by the violence of those who
gave him the job of looking after the prison and the prison had
been opened. He knew he was going to die,
but it was what must I do to be saved from the condemnation
which is justly mine when I face the God who has made me? The
Bible from cover to cover answers. those questions. It answers the
question, how can I be right with God? How should a man be
just with God? It answers the question, what
must I do to be saved? You see, there is an escape from
the problem of the wrath to come, and it is called the gospel,
as you know, the solution. Verse 10, to wait for his Son
from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, the risen Son of God
from heaven, even Jesus. He has delivered, released The
us that it's talking to. There's an us there. Throughout
this, read the us. Became followers of us. Show
of us what manner of entering in. To wait for his son from
whom he raised from the dead, which delivered us from the wrath
to come. There's an us there whom he has
released from that wrath to come. the us that Paul is writing to
there. The message of Romans is the same throughout. Indeed,
all of the Bible addresses this question, how should a man be
right with God? What is the gospel of his grace?
And it says this, the Son of God, the Son of God, what's the
Son of God? the manifestation of God, the
one by whom the eternal Godhead is revealed, the one who by nature
of his spiritual being cannot be discerned by physical flesh
and blood, he became a man in the person of his Son, that he
might be manifested to his people. The manifestation, the revelation
of God to man has become man. in the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory we
with eyes we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten
of the father full of grace and truth and as a perfect substitute
for the us that paul is writing to he has perfectly satisfied
god's offended justice god's offended justice which screams
out the soul that sins it shall die He has perfectly satisfied,
in His death, on the cross, the infinite, perfect, sinless Lamb
of God has perfectly satisfied God's offended justice. He assumed,
He took on Him, the sin of the us. Call His name Jesus, for
He shall save His people. the us, his people, from their
sins. And he's paid its penalty to
God's justice in full in his death on the cross. And how do
we know that it's accepted? Romans 4, It says in verse 24, he's been
speaking about Abraham being justified, and he says, for us
also, to whom it shall be imputed, what? The righteousness of God.
If we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was delivered. Jesus was delivered for our offenses. He was nailed to a cross and
died and shed his blood that he might pay the law's price
for the sins of his people. And he didn't stay dead. but
to prove, to vindicate, to confirm that what he did satisfied the
law, he was raised again for our justification. He was raised
for our justification. And therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God. through our Lord Jesus Christ. What a glorious position to be
in. The payment accepted, the law satisfied, justice maintained,
sinners justified in God's sight, because the man Jesus was raised
from the dead, we know his death as God's Son paid the law's penalty
for the sins of his elect, and thereby he delivered us from
the wrath to come. But how Is it applied to me? You don't say yes, I can see
all that. How do I know that I am living in the good of what
Christ accomplished? So my last point is actually
six points, but I'll be quick with them. Salvation from wrath
experienced. Salvation from wrath, not just
mentally understood, but experienced. This chapter shows us six aspects
of salvation from wrath. For you to be a true Christian,
to be saved from sin, these things must happen, must apply to you. Firstly, firstly, look at verse
four. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God. God must have chosen you to salvation
before time began. Why is that so essential? It's
essential because Christ did not die for the sins of everybody. He only died for those whom the
Father chose in him before the foundation of the world. That
is a fact. God is gracious, but he is entirely
sovereign. It's his business, it's his choice,
and his alone in respect of to whom he chooses to be gracious. It says that there is a multitude
that no man can number that he has chosen in Christ, from every
tribe and kindred and tongue in all ages down world history. Yes, but, he still says, Romans
9.13, quoting the Old Testament, Jacob, symbolical of his people,
that he did choose, Jacob have I loved, Esau, symbolical of
those he left to themselves, have I hated, or have I passed
by. Then, Then he says in, sorry, in verse
15 of Romans, chapter nine, he says there, I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. I won't be gracious to the one
who chooses me. No, no, it doesn't say that. Nowhere in the Bible does it
say that. He says, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
to whom I decide to be gracious to. That's what God says. You
say, well, that's unfair. If you think that's unfair, Tell
God his fault when you meet him in eternity. You won't be able
to. You will vindicate God for his
justice. If you die and go to hell, you
will know that it is entirely your fault for not believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, John 6, 37, Jesus says,
no man can come to me unless my father who sent me draws him. God has got to draw you. God
has, in his sovereign grace, has got to draw you. But he says
this, he says, and whoever comes to me, I will in no wise cast
out. Don't ever say that the doctrine
of election and it's clear there, lying right there on the surface
in verse four, don't ever say that the doctrine of election
barred your way, because Jesus said, any sinner pleading for
grace with God and seeking favor with God, he says, I will in
no wise cast out. He says, come to me, all you
who labor and are heavy laden. Under what? Under the weight
and guilt of sin, and the fear of meeting him. He says, come
to me, and I will give you rest. He doesn't say I will give you
something to do to make amends, he says I will give you rest
for your souls. Take my yoke upon you for my
yoke is easy and my burden is light. So you must be chosen
to salvation because Christ only died for the ones the Father
chose in him before the foundation of the world. Secondly You must
hear the gospel preached. In verse 5, our gospel came not
unto you in word only, we preached, we said words, but also in power
and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. You must hear
it. Verse 9, they, the people that
know about these Thessalonians, they themselves show us what
manner of entering in we had. The words that we spoke went
deep Inside you when we preach them and you turn to God from
idols to serve the living and true God You must hear the gospel
preached for we know from Romans 10 I quote it often verses 13
to 17 whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved But what are you going to call on? There must be a preacher
who is sent to preach, and he must preach the true gospel.
And you must hear it with the hearing of faith. Not just hearing words, which
go in one ear and out of the other, as they say. But hearing
words that the Holy Spirit gives you understanding of, and understanding
them, you believe them, that's true, I can see that, that's
true. And believing, you don't just sit there, you call on the
name of the Lord. Lord, be gracious to me. Be gracious
to me, a sinner. You know, the Pharisee, the humble
man pleading by the wall, the Pharisee's thanking God for how
good a man he is. and the humble publican is beating
his chest and pleading with God to be merciful to me, the sinner. And calling on the name of the
Lord, whosoever shall call shall be saved. Look at verse five. It doesn't just amount to intellect. It's the power of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost must come and
open deaf ears, and open blind eyes. And look what manner of
entering, verse nine, the manner of entering. Others, you know,
in a congregation, in a group of people listening to preaching,
there will be those whose ears and hearts and eyes are shut,
and barricaded, and boarded up, and the portcullis is down, and
the drawbridge is up, and the moat is full, and there's no
way that that message is coming in. but when Paul preached to
the Thessalonians, oh what manner of entering in. There was a lady
at Philippi who was a seller of purple and her name was Lydia
and she was a religious lady and she gathered by the riverside
very frequently with her friends to worship God, but she didn't
know the truth. And Paul came on his missionary
journey, one of his missionary journeys, and he preached there. He preached the truth. And what
does it say? God opened Lydia's heart that she might believe.
What manner of entering in we had unto you. You see, until
God opened her heart, The doors were closed, but God opened her
heart. And what manner of entering in
we had unto you. The manner of entering in. The
word of God wasn't just words. Look at verse 13 of the very
next chapter. When ye receive, for this cause
also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the
word of God, which ye heard of us, Paul, your letters and your
preaching, the Word of God, yes, you received it not as the Word
of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually
worketh also in you who believe. These letters of Paul, they're
the Word of God. This is the Word of God. Holy
men were inspired by the Holy Spirit. you must believe you
must not only hear the gospel you must believe the preached
gospel you must believe it verse nine the manner of entering in
we had unto you and you turned to God from idols. This is believing,
you turn to God from the idols of your own fallen imagination,
your own false thinking to serve the living and true God. You
turned, you must believe, you must be converted, you must be
converted from the life that you're in. Here in the gospel
you count it as true and you act in accordance because there
was a verse we read the other morning, we were reading a couple
of chapters in Jeremiah And in chapter 32, a verse particularly
struck me. God says there, I will put my
fear in their hearts. Oh, what a blessed thing it is.
When the God of the universe, the God of creation, the God
who is holy from eternity, the God who rules over all things,
when he puts his fear, in your heart. What is wrong with the
society in which we live, this God-rejecting society? There
is no fear of God before their eyes, is what the scripture says
in Romans. There is no fear of God. They don't fear God. The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning. Oh, what, am I to be terrified
of God? No, Abba, Father, but I reverentially fear God. I know that He is. I know that
He is the cause of all these things. I know that He is ruling
over all things. I know He is sovereign and all-powerful. I know that He is right and just
and holy and good and awesome and I bow before him, because
he's put his fear in my heart. So you count it true, and you
act in accordance, and you turn. Turning? Repentance. Repentance?
What does repentance mean? It's from the French, penser,
to think. Repent. Rethink. You rethink
everything that you thought before, from the idols of your corrupted
imagination, which is all down, as we saw in Revelation, it's
the lie of Satan. This society in which we live
is governed by the lie of Satan. He is, as the scripture calls
him, the God of this world, little g. The signs that are worked
by the false prophet and the beast of Revelation, we see them
all around us, the anti-God thinking of this world. You turn from
that and you turn to God to serve him. That's what the Philippian
jailer and his family I believed in, they turned to God from idols. It is this believing that is
the proof of your election of God. You know this verse as well,
I quote it often enough, we are bound, 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 verse 13, we are bound always to give thanks to God for you
brethren Beloved of the Lord, for God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. How do I know? Through sanctification
of the Spirit. The Spirit of God has clearly
set you apart for His service. And belief of the truth. You've
believed what you've heard. It's the only basis for Paul's
confidence. How does he know, verse 4, your
election of God? Because they believe the gospel
of grace. Fourthly, you became followers. You became followers. Verse six,
you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received
the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. You became
followers. Having believed the gospel, you
became followers. You became disciples of Paul,
insofar as he proclaimed the gospel of Christ. But really,
your following is of Christ. You're a disciple of Christ,
having believed. You're a learner in God's school. You go to the school of the living
God, where he teaches you from his word by his preachers, whom
he burdens with the message of the gospel of grace. And you
walk in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever the
cost might be, because As Peter said, when Jesus said to the
disciples, will you also leave me? Because so many who'd look
like disciples went away in John 6 towards the end. And he says,
will you also go away and leave me? And Peter said, to whom shall
we go? We may not understand everything. It may cost us our friends and
all sorts of things that we valued, but you have the words of eternal
life. And I must be, I know because
my eyes have been opened, I must be where the words of eternal
life are preached and known and owned. In other words, you continue
as a disciple of Christ. You know, becoming a Christian
is not just ticking the gospel box and moving on. Oh yes, I've
done that. No, you continue to learn and
to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. As Peter writes, his
last verse that he wrote in the scriptures, 2 Peter 3, verse
18, grow in grace and the knowledge of our God and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Grow, grow, continue to learn. You're a disciple,
a follower. And then fifthly, Fifthly, you bear gospel fruit. Becoming a Christian, you bear
gospel fruit. Now then, be careful. This isn't
a kind of a beauty parade to line people up to say, oh now
what fruit are they producing? Now how much fruit, how many
marks do we give that? Do we give that a nine out of
ten or only a six out of ten? No, no. You bear gospel fruit. It's there in verse three. Remembering
without ceasing your work of faith. and labour of love, and
patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is it. Throughout
the epistles, faith, hope, and love are the marks of true belief
again and again. But it's, as James says, not
faith which is just lip service, not that kind of faith. It's
faith that works. It's faith that produces a result. It's faith that changes the character
of the person that has that faith. that changes the attitudes, that
changes the respect for other people of that person. It's love
that isn't just kind of lovey-dovey, but it's love that acts. It's
love that puts its money where its mouth is, as it says. It
acts. It's hope that produces patience,
so that it is seen. In verse 7, you are examples,
ensembles, examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
They saw it. They saw how changed you were. They saw how you turned to God
from idols to serve the living and true God. They saw that you
were changed people, not for show, or praise, or earning favor
with God, but as proof of the reality of the change that has
taken place. It has been rightly said, I know
some silly people pamper their dogs more than they would pamper
another human being, but it has been rightly said, I suppose
particularly in a working dog situation, like a farmer with
some sheep dogs, it has been rightly said that when a man
becomes a true believer, his dog is aware of the change. The
dog knows it. because although he's still the
master and the dog should do as it's told the dog knows that
there's a change in the tone and the attitude of that one,
that farmer who used to be rough and harsh with the dog and now
he's got compassion for that dog and then sixthly you have
your heart set on heaven verse ten to wait for his son from
heaven to wait. There's so much to... I know
if you're young and you've got your life ahead of you, there's
so much to do here. I tell you, I can remember thinking
back to when I was in my teens and thinking, well, wow, it's
like a whopping great big ocean set before me is life. and now
most of it's gone, I might have a lot of years left, but you
never know, like I said, you have to live each day as if it's
possibly your last. There is so much to do here,
but you acknowledge how fleeting is this present life. How the
things that look so permanent, they're passing away. It's the
unseen things of eternity that are permanent in truth, you look
to eternal heavenly bliss with Christ you look to the end of
your salvation which is you being with him in glory with all his
people at the marriage supper of the lamb and that you know
we can't picture what it's going to be like all we know is it's
going to be absolute bliss in the presence of Christ when there's
no sin That's what you have your heart set on. That's where your
treasure is. Jesus said in the Sermon on the
Mount, lay up treasure in heaven where moth and rust and other
things of this world do not corrupt and rust and decay it. Put your
treasure in heaven. What is it to put your treasure
in heaven? by faith, believing and learning of the Lord Jesus
Christ and knowing more and more of Him and the glories of His
grace. Your treasure is in heaven and you're living on the tiptoe
of faith, looking and hoping and waiting patiently for the
glorious appearing of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So
that's it, six things. Unknown to you, you're chosen
of God. your cause to hear the gospel
preached because God orders all our steps all the way He does. He puts you in the path of one
whom he sent to preach the gospel. As he did with the Ethiopian
eunuch when he sent Philip to preach to him. He causes you
to hear the gospel preached. And the Holy Spirit gives you
ears to hear the spiritual message. And he gives you faith to believe
what you can't naturally believe. and he grants you the gift that
others do not have, which is repentance from dead works, from
the works of the flesh, from the works that bring condemnation,
and faith in Christ, and commitment to him as his disciple. And he
characterizes it by gospel fruit, of working faith, of laboring
love, and of patient hoping and waiting for the eternal climax
of God's salvation. Now, what about you? Is God calling
you to come to Christ, to believe, to trust him, is he? Jesus said
this, Jesus said this, there is joy in heaven over one sinner
that repents.