The Gospel is a Command

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00:02
Good morning everyone I want to welcome you back to our daily Bible study my name is Keith Foskey with Sovereign Grace Family Church and I am the pastor and I want to take a moment to talk to you today about our daily Bible reading.
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Every day we have a Bible reading you can go to our website sgfcjax.org and you can see our daily Bible reading sheet and today we are beginning on the book of 2 Thessalonians.
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Now the last two videos I did were kind of long so I am going to go a little quicker today I am going to make this a little shorter because I know it is a lot to ask for you to watch but I am hoping that these will become part of your daily routine as you study your Bible and you will be able to listen along and learn a little something about what we are reading so it will help just to complement your daily reading of the Bible.
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I want to remind you again of Bible at a Glance that is a resource that you can go and purchase and it gives you a one page synopsis of each book of the Bible so that whenever you are studying and you go to a new book like today we are going to 2 Thessalonians you can read a little bit about the book before you get started and it can help you with your understanding.
01:12
I just want to read something from the Bible at a Glance sheet that I have up here it reminds us that it is the 14th book of the New Testament that was written by the Apostle Paul it was written somewhere in the early 50's 51-52 and it is focusing on the end times.
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Now what it says here and this is a good reminder is that Paul wrote this letter to speak to the people again about the coming return of Jesus Christ.
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Some of the believers in that church thought that Jesus had already returned and this letter was penned to correct their misunderstandings and it goes on to say that the church members should be steadfast in their holiness so that they actually will be ready when Christ does return.
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So I think that is a pretty good helpful insight.
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The book of 2 Thessalonians is very short it is only three chapters and so we will be looking at it over the next three days.
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We are going to look today at 2 Thessalonians chapter 1.
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I have got my sheet ready that you know I talked about this yesterday I take a sheet I print out the text I write on it I make my notes on it and this is how I do my personal Bible study so I wanted to share that with you.
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So I am going to read the text to you and then I am going to make just a few comments and pray.
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So it says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 Paul Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians and God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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We ought always to give thanks to God for you brothers as is right because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.
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This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering since indeed God considers it just to repay with afflictions those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels inflaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
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They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.
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When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.
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To this end we will always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So that's the first chapter of the book of 2 Thessalonians.
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My point to you this morning is I just want to look at one verse.
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As I said I'm going to try to make these a little more succinct.
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The outline of the passage is fairly simple.
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Verses 1-4 is Paul's introduction and his giving of thanks for the Thessalonians and then verses 5 down to verse 12 is him beginning to talk about the second coming of Christ and how that should give them comfort in their time of affliction and against their enemies who are afflicting them, many of which who will receive punishment when Jesus does return.
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Now verse 8 is where I want to focus this morning because it says inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
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Now here's what I want to point out about that particular passage.
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Just a few days ago I watched an online interaction between two men in a public forum where they were debating on the subject this question, is the gospel a command? And it all started because one of them said in a public post, he said the gospel is not a suggestion, it is a command.
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And another person responded to him and said no the gospel is not a command, the command is to believe.
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The gospel is what we believe and even though that may seem like a pedantic argument, it really is a good question.
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Is the gospel a command? And I believe that this passage here in 2 Thessalonians 1 tells us that the gospel is in fact a command.
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It looks like I've had some issue with my background here, I think my lighting may have shifted some.
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So there we go, we can fix it.
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So going back to the question, is the gospel a command or a suggestion? Well first of all the gospel is not a suggestion because we read that the apostles went out and in Acts 17 they commanded that all men everywhere repent and repentance is part of the gospel.
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Repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's part of the gospel.
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And so the person who is saying that the gospel is not a command, the command is to believe the gospel, I think he is missing the point.
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And the point is clearly said by the apostle Paul here in verse 8 that those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel are going to find themselves in the end the objects of God's vengeance.
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They are going to find themselves in the end the objects of God's vengeance.
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So the reality is the gospel is a command and it's a command that involves repentance and faith.
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And it's not a suggestion.
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And I think this is where one of the great confusions, especially in the last generation of Christianity, because Christianity went out in crusades and evangelism and it was almost as if it was some kind of a plea or a suggestion, come to Jesus, please come to Jesus, and there was almost like this sort of pleading that was happening.
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And the reality is Jesus is not a pauper who's begging, but he's a king who's commanding.
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He's commanding that we believe in him and those who refuse to believe in him are going to, as this passage reminds us, are going to suffer greatly.
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And yet those who do believe, those who don't are going to suffer greatly, but those who do believe are going to receive the blessing of eternal life.
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And so this morning I just want to remind you, part of this passage reminds us that the gospel is a command.
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The gospel is not a suggestion and the gospel involves repenting towards God and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done.
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So my admonition to you this morning is, have you, or my question to you is, have you obeyed the gospel? Have you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior or are you still living in rebellion to the king? Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for this opportunity to look at the word together, to talk about the difference between a suggestion and a command and to be reminded that the word of God is not a suggestion, but in fact it is a command.
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And the gospel is not a suggestion, but it is a command.
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I pray that those who hear me today would understand that the king of kings and the Lord of lords has given a command and those who do not obey it will suffer his wrath, but those who do, who come to him in faith and repentance will find him to be a perfect savior and in him they will have complete assurance that their eternity is bound up in what he has done on the cross.
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We thank you Lord for Jesus, we thank you for all that you have done in him and we pray that you'll continue to keep our hope in him in these difficult times.
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Lord we thank you, we praise you, we give you all glory and honor in Jesus name.
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Amen.
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Well again, until we meet again, may God bless you and I hope that you find these studies to be useful.