Sunday School: Give Thanks in All Circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:15-28)

You're listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. Let's come to 1

Thessalonians chapter 5 and we're in that closing section. I'm going to go ahead and read from verses 12 to 28 again.

This is out of the English standard version that I'm reading from and then recapping real quick what we looked at last week and then hit some of these final instructions here.

So 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 starting in verse 12, I'll read through the passage and then we will say a short prayer here again.

The Apostle Paul to the church in Thessalonica. We ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the

Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly and love because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you brothers admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything.

Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it.

Brothers pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I put you under oath before the

Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father as we conclude our study, our semester long study here of the book of first Thessalonians, I pray that we would continue to be encouraged by these words and that we may, as was said in chapter five, verse 11, encourage one another and build one another up just as we are doing.

These are words that were given to a church 2 ,000 years ago, but the Holy Spirit still speaks to us through these words even today.

May we know how to rightly apply this to ourselves and to one another. And it's in Jesus name that we pray.

Amen. All right. Looking once again at verses 12 through 14 that we looked at last week.

So we have this charge. We ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the

Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.

And who was Paul referring to here when he talks about to respect those who labor among you and are over you?

Apostles are one. Yeah. Pastors, elders, teachers, as the apostle

Paul said in Ephesians 4, 11, that God has appointed the apostles and prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to prepare the saints for the work of ministry.

So anybody that kind of fits that gamut right there, the apostles and prophets, we're even going to have prophets in this section here.

We've seen prophets mentioned or prophecies rather. We'll give some context to that here in just a moment.

But anybody who would have been charged with the word of God to build up the saints.

And in our present context, that would most definitely apply to elders and teachers within the church.

Those who labor among you, they are with you and over you in the

Lord, and they admonish you. They correct with goodwill. I have been so grateful in my life to those brothers in the

Lord that I have had that have been willing to hit me upside the head with a spiritual two -by -four and make sure that I am staying on the path of righteousness and not letting myself wander away by the passions of my flesh or by the temptations of this world.

So this is a goodwill correction. And may we be willing to not only give that correction, but receive it if the time comes for that.

And so with this instruction, with Paul having said this about elders and teachers to submit to them, he then says that we have a responsibility to one another.

We look at verse 14 and we urge you brothers admonish the idol. So you have those who are going to admonish you, but then again, as we have the saints being prepared for the work of ministry, you also must admonish one another.

Looking out for each other, you know, when Jesus gave the instructions about church discipline in Matthew chapter 18, he says, when a brother sins against you, go and talk to your brother between you and him alone.

And if he listens to you, then you've won your brother. So there's not a reason to have to make a big deal out of it or get a whole bunch of other people involved, but you've shown that you have affection for this brother or this sister in the

Lord that needs correction. And if the spirit is with them and what is being addressed is something that is according to the word of God, then may they be convicted in turn from their sin.

So we have this admonition that is given to us that we must admonish the idol, encourage the faint hearted, those who struggle, those who are weak, helping the weak and being patient with them all.

And this is mostly speaking with regards to those who are less mature in their faith. They don't know as well.

They have not learned as deeply these truths that we hold dear according to the word of God.

So those who don't know as well, admonish them where needed, encourage them where they are weak, help and be patient with everyone.

As it says in Romans 15, 1 and 2, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Each one must consider the good of his neighbor for his benefit to build him up. So now we get to this next instructions where we are today and we'll finish up verses 15 through 28.

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

This is a pretty familiar instruction as we've seen this also in Romans 12.

Turn with me, if you will, to Romans 12. Keep your finger here in 1 Thessalonians 5, we'll go to Romans 12 quickly.

And there's a series of instructions here that Paul gives in Romans 12 for the church that looks pretty similar to some things that we've seen

Paul encourage the church in in other places. When it comes to how we regard those who might do evil toward us, the apostle

Paul says in Romans 12, 9, let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.

Now keep that in mind because Paul gets to that also in 1 Thessalonians 5. Love one another with brotherly affection,

Paul says, outdo one another in showing honor. This is verse 11. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the

Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Now look at these instructions in verse 14. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another.

Do not be haughty, do not be proud, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight, repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

This is very similar to words that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 where he said, you have heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemy and do what for those who persecute you?

Pray, right, pray for those who persecute you. So Paul goes on here in verse 19 to say, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.

For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Now notice here, looking at Romans 12, that verses 9 and verse 21, this section begins and ends kind of the same way, doesn't it?

Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, and how do we see that at the conclusion?

Verse 21, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Now this doesn't necessarily mean that just by doing good things in the world that there won't be any evil in the world.

That isn't necessarily what's being said there, but that as Paul has previously said in Romans chapter 8, that we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.

Those evil things that happen to us will not destroy us. They will not conquer us, rather we will conquer those things.

And the trials and circumstances that we go through in this life are yet another opportunity that we submit ourselves to Christ and praise his name in the midst of this, knowing that he is ultimately working this out for our good and for his glory.

Romans 8, 28, right? For we know that all things work together for good. For those who love

God and are called according to his purpose. All things work together for good. So we overcome evil with good when we hold fast to Christ and know that he is working good in the midst of this circumstance.

So again, it's not necessarily something proverbial where Paul is saying that, hey, if you just do good things, then you'll destroy evil.

That may be the case. We certainly, by doing good things, won't see evil in our midst, correct?

But it doesn't mean that by doing good things, there won't be any evil in the world. We know that there will be, but the evil things will not have us when we contribute ourselves or commit ourselves to doing the work of the

Lord, amen? So let's come back to 1 Thessalonians 5, where again, see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

Now you'll notice that in this next set of instructions, though it's more brief than what we just saw in Romans chapter 12, we have the same sort of a pattern.

There's kind of a beginning and an end or these bookends that look the same as what we saw in Romans 12.

So here in verse 15, see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

Look at verse 21, test everything, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil, right?

See that in two places again, even here in 1 Thessalonians 5. Now when we see this battle of good and evil that's even depicted in passages such as this, this isn't like the yin and the yang, right?

It's not the, you know, you've seen the circle with the little white and black swirl or something like that. Forces of darkness and light battling against each other.

It's not Star Wars where you've got the light side and the dark side of the force, but rather what

God says is good. We know what God says is good according to his word, according to what the

Bible says. When we are called to do good, we're called to do what is in the will of God.

What God says is good, what is most reflecting of Christ and his character, correct?

If you think back to chapter 4 verse 1, Paul had said, finally then brothers, we ask and urge you in the

Lord Jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please

God just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the

Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. So we are looking to walk in a manner that is worthy of God.

How do we walk in a manner that is worthy of God? What's that?

Obedience to the scripture, absolutely. Looking at the character of Christ, right?

Living as Christ. Or even looking at the character of somebody like the apostle Paul. In 1

Corinthians 11, he says, be imitators of me, not because Paul was anybody special or anybody great.

He says, be imitators of me because I am of Christ, right? So we have those people that we see are in the

Lord and we imitate their behavior. We become imitators of their faith. The same thing is said in Hebrews 13, verses 7 and 17.

So just as the same as we saw here in 1 Thessalonians 5, 12, respect those who labor among you and are over you in the

Lord and admonish you. In Hebrews 13, verses 7 and 17, there's an instruction there also about recognizing and giving respect to those who labor over you in the

Lord and imitate their faith is specifically what it says there. And do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no benefit to you.

So we have people that are more mature in the faith that we look at.

They have come to reflect Christ -like behavior because they've followed mature people in the faith before them.

You just see this wonderful pattern in the history of the church for 2 ,000 years that starts with Christ, goes through his apostles, other shepherds and teachers that they have raised up and trained, and for all these years later, we are continuing to imitate character that began with Christ, right?

Through the apostles down onto us. Pastors, when you look at the requirement for pastors, for teachers, for elders that we have in places like 1

Timothy 3, verses 1 -7 or in Titus 1, verses 5 -9. When you look at the qualifications for those pastors, there's really only one skill, only one skill that a pastor has to have that really sets him apart as being called to be that elder or that teacher.

What is that one skill that a pastor has to have? Can you remember? He must be able to do something, teach, right?

Must be able to teach. That's the only skill he has to have. Everything else in that list of qualifications is exemplary character, but it's not character that you're looking at going, well, my pastor has to do that, but I don't have to have that kind of character, right?

When you go through the list of qualifications for a pastor or for an elder, those are qualifications that you should want to have.

Somebody who's hospitable, somebody who's kind to everyone, somebody who loves his family.

Yeah, that's the kind of character that I want to have as well. So what you're really looking at when you see that list of qualifications for a pastor or for an elder, you're looking for a man of God who is mature and is probably going to be among the most mature in his faith of everybody else that is in that church.

And so we have, and I mentioned this last week, I said, I know this is self -serving, but nonetheless, it's an instruction that we have or something that is declared to us in scripture.

Pastors are a gift to the church. And a pastor is somebody that you look at and desire to imitate his faith because, not because that pastor in and of himself is somebody great, but because that pastor has looked at other men before him and has seen their exemplary character and desires to imitate their faith.

And all of this guided by the scriptures. It's not like we have some great archetype and we're all kind of following that archetype of genuine character all the way down the line.

It's all according to the word of God. Jesus Christ gave us that example and we only know about that example because it's written down in the pages of scripture.

And so there are men who are trained by these things that grow in godliness. According to this, the apostle

Paul said to Timothy that it's the word of God that trains a person for godliness.

We can't grow in godliness in any other way except we come to the word. But then we also have that wonderful blessed gift of examples of people who are around us that are more mature in their faith, dedicated to the word, trained in godliness over more years than I've been trained.

And so they are people that we can look to as examples and know that this is how we are to behave in our most holy faith.

So as we have this charge then to not repay evil for evil, but to do good to one another and to everyone, we have good examples, good models set before us that we can follow and know what that's supposed to look like.

What that good exemplary character in Christian ethics should appear to be.

Verse 16, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

And again, instructions for everybody, right? Just your pastor has to do this, but everybody should have an attitude of rejoicing always of even praying without ceasing.

Let's look at these kind of one at a time. So rejoice always. Even when I read this here in 1

Thessalonians 5, 16, my mind goes right to Philippians 4, 4. Does anybody know

Philippians 4, 4 off the top of your head? Rejoice in the Lord always.

I'll say it again, rejoice, right? And where is Paul when he says that? He's in prison for preaching the gospel.

He's chained to a guard. That's literally a circumstance right there, as he's writing those words to the church in Philippi, he's chained to a

Roman guard for doing exactly what the highest order would be for an apostle of Jesus Christ to do in his time, to preach the gospel.

He's in service to the Lord and yet he's been thrown in prison for the highest calling that he could receive.

And yet what does he say there while he's chained to a Roman guard? Rejoice in the

Lord always. And it's such a reminder to me because if Paul can rejoice always, though he's arrested and chained to a

Roman guard and doesn't have a moment of privacy to himself for the years that he was there under house arrest in Rome, if Paul can rejoice in that circumstance, then

I can certainly rejoice in mine. And again, we have those examples. We have those models of Christ -like character to follow.

But why do we rejoice always? Not just have a good attitude, pull up your bootstraps and buck up young man or something like that.

Whatever weird platitudes that we give to each other, have a good attitude and whatnot. Why should we rejoice always?

That's right. Amen. Thank you, sister. Because Christ has saved our souls. We know that no matter what happens on this side of heaven, our life is hidden with Christ and God and glory.

Man can destroy my body and that's it. That's all he can do. After that, I'm God's.

I'm God's now. I'll be God's forevermore. This is Jesus saying to his disciples even, don't fear him who can destroy the body and after that can't do anything to you.

But instead fear him who after destroying the body can also destroy the soul in hell.

Yes, I say fear him. Now the fear we have of God is not walking around constantly covering our heads, fearing that lightning could strike us at any moment.

The fear that we have of God is a reverent fear. We know that he is judge, he is creator of all, that our souls belong to him.

So we fear God in a sort of a reverent way, but also knowing that he has saved our souls.

And so we have nothing to fear of the wrath of God. That's why that fear would be reverent. It would be high respect rather than walking around cowering all the time.

But we know that because of Jesus Christ, our souls are saved. And so therefore, no matter what anyone does to us, we have nothing to fear of them because we belong to God.

As Charles Spurgeon said, fear God and nothing else, right? So in this, in knowing this, that our souls are saved and we're with Christ above in glory, we can rejoice always.

I was talking with my kids about this earlier this week because we've been going through a devotional book for Christmas, for Advent.

And the devotional that we had just read through had talked about peace on earth and goodwill towards men.

And we were singing about joy to the world. Even read about Isaac Watts and how he, the circumstances that he was in when he wrote that particular song.

He was very, very ill at the time. And yet he's writing, joy to the world, the Lord has come, let earth receive her

King. And so as I'm talking with my kids about that and my middle daughter, Aria, her middle name is

Joy. So this is something that comes up in conversation every once in a while anyway. But I asked my kids, so what is joy?

What is that? What does joy mean? What might be the first word that you think of with joy?

Happiness, right? Yeah. That's exactly what my kids said. So what is joy? Happy. It's being happy.

Okay. But what makes you happy? And then kids give kid answers to,

I like, I like watching Bluey, you know, I like going outside and swinging. I like it when we go to the park.

I love train sets, you know, whatever, whatever it is that makes my kids happy. But what if you don't have those things?

What if we can't go to the park today? What if you don't have a train set to play with? What if the internet's out and you can't watch

Bluey, you know, you can't go outside today. It was raining. That was yesterday.

So, so now what makes you happy? How do we have happiness when the things that we don't, when we don't have those things that make us happy?

And that kind of helped them understand what joy is. So joy is even when we don't have the things that we would think would make us happy in this particular case, our circumstances, right?

Our circumstances are not going the way that they want, that we want them to. So how do we have joy in the midst of that?

Again, we continue to cling to Christ. We have a hopeful expectation of something that is above and beyond whatever the circumstances that we're in at the present.

And so in this, we have joy. Joy is something that is not dependent upon our circumstances.

It's actually a hopeful happiness that we have in Christ that's not dependent upon circumstances.

And so I asked my kids, can you then have joy even if you're sad? They said, yeah, yeah, we can be joyful.

Even when we're sad, somebody close to us might die and we're filled with sorrow, but yet we still have joy because we know the promise that we have in Christ Jesus.

The promise of the resurrection of the dead. So in Christ, we can rejoice always.

Now praying without ceasing, this one's a little more complicated. How do you pray without ceasing? It doesn't mean that we're like some of those rabbis you might see at the wailing wall in Jerusalem that are constantly in the state of prayer.

They're rocking back and forth. I've heard of people who've been to the wailing wall and you might talk to those who put the little prayers in the wall for you and will pray for you and they're kind of in like a trance -like state.

It's almost like you can't even have a conversation with them because they're just praying constantly. That's not what we're talking about when we say pray without ceasing, but rather that in any and all circumstances, we're ready to pray, right?

Right now where you're sitting, you're not in a posture or in an attitude or a mindset of prayer.

Maybe you are. Maybe you've tuned out and you're not listening to me anymore and you're praying. Maybe that's what's going on.

I don't know. But rather that in any and every time, just like rejoicing always, we have a heart and a mind so fixed upon Christ, with such a hopeful expectation of his kingdom to come, that we are in our minds ready to pray at any moment's notice, right?

Right now, praying for friends, family. When we get to church service, when we get to the worship service here, you'll go through that worship service with a heart and a mind that is trained on prayer, though we're not constantly praying through that service.

Even when Pastor Tom is preaching, there's a mind that is fixed upon Christ. And so we have hearts and minds always for the

Lord and that is the way in which we pray without ceasing. Kind of similar to the way that the

Apostle Paul said to Timothy, preach the word in season and out of season. Pray without ceasing is that same kind of concept.

Pray. In season and out of season. Well, I can't think of anything to pray for. Yes, you can.

Pray. Come before the Lord and pray. Jesus' instructions in the

Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6, don't pray out there on street corners to be seen by others. Don't pray nonsense words like the pagans do, but pray then like this and gave us the example from the

Lord's prayer. And he says, go into your closet and shut the door. The father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

So we don't just pray when other people are around to see us pray, but we regularly, personally, our discipline is that our heart and our mind would be for Christ.

And if we have faith, if we know, we believe that Christ hears our prayers, we will want to pray in any and all circumstances.

You have a direct line to the creator of the universe. Use it.

Amen. So the next one, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

And you see how the two previous ones kind of tie right into that, right? Rejoicing always in all circumstances.

Pray without ceasing in all circumstances. Give thanks, a heart of thankfulness in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

This is God's will for you. As a pastor, I'm often asked, Pastor Gabe, what's

God's will for me? What's God's will for my life? And usually, not always, but more often than not, when that question gets asked of me, it's like they want the fortune cookie answer.

Where am I supposed to live? Who am I supposed to marry? What kind of career am

I supposed to have? What tax bracket am I going to live in? You know, what are my hopes and dreams?

If I want to be a big star someday, is God going to make me a big star? Like what's

God's will for my life? And they're a little bit taken aback when they're expecting that kind of answer.

They want the fortune cookie answer. They want the fortune teller. And my response to them is, well, 1

Thessalonians 5 .18, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

That's not quite the answer that they were expecting or hoping for, but I can tell you, brothers and sisters, that was the answer that I needed when

I was that arrogant and I was that self -centered once upon a time, thinking that whatever

I wanted was what God wanted for me, right? If I want it, if the desire is in my heart and in my mind, well,

God must have given it to me and it must be what he wants me to have. And yet I had a good brother in the

Lord that said to me, Gabe, whatever you're doing right now, wherever things are at, you need to be thankful for where you are.

You need to be thankful for what you have, the opportunities that you have right now. And God is not shortchanging you just because you don't have what you think that you deserve.

But because, I mean, when it comes down to it, what we deserve right now is death, right? But what we've been given is the grace of God through Christ Jesus, our

Lord. So give thanks in all circumstances. This is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Think of the Thessalonians who were being persecuted and some of them being killed for their faith. And yet Paul is saying to them, give thanks.

Give thanks even in the midst of this. In Philippians 4 .4, which I had mentioned to you.

So that section begins, Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say again, rejoice.

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

So in that instruction even, don't be anxious about anything. Don't be in despair.

But in everything with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. It's really difficult to complain to God when you're thankful for your circumstance, right?

And it doesn't mean that every time we come to God, we just need to grin and bear it.

Or God's not going to hear my prayer. We can express deep lament and sorrow in our hearts.

There's nothing wrong with that. Consider Psalm 13, where David says,

How long, O Lord, are you going to forget me forever? That's quite a statement to begin a prayer with, right?

How long are you going to forget me, God? David talks about his enemies triumphing over him.

But the last two verses of that Psalm, of Psalm 13, is, But I will hope in God.

I will trust in the living God, for he has dealt bountifully with me.

So even though David begins that prayer with, How long are you going to forget me, yet he's going to trust in God because God has dealt bountifully with him.

And so, therefore, has hope in God. We can struggle, we can lament in our prayers, and yet we can know that God has us.

God has, even in this circumstance, this circumstance is not out of control.

Something is happening for our good and for God's glory. And so we can give thanks, even in the midst of this circumstance.

This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us. Do not quench the spirit,

Paul says. Do not despise the prophecies, but test everything, hold fast to what is good.

Now let me give you a context here, because there is a certain context in which this applies to the

Thessalonians, there's a different context to which this applies to us. At this particular time, you still have the gospel going out to all the churches through the ministry of the apostles, and the message of that gospel is being authenticated with signs and wonders, right?

I'm talking real signs, real people who are sick and dying and they're being healed and raised up.

Real limbs that are withered that are being touched and fully restored. Tongues being spoken in that are actual human languages that those people would not understand if not that something miraculous were happening in their midst and they're actually speaking a language that they did not previously know.

Okay, these are the miraculous signs and wonders, Hebrews 2 tells us about this. Paul says to the

Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 13, 13, the signs of an apostle were performed among you.

This is not what's going on in every apostolic or Pentecostal church on a

Sunday morning, where some of that stuff doesn't even make any amount of sense, okay?

Not saying that miraculous things cannot happen today, I believe that they can, it's just not happening at our beck and call.

These signs were given at a particular time and a place for a particular reason, again as Hebrews 2 says, it was according to the will of the

Spirit and it was to authenticate that the message that was being spoken truly came from God.

What happened you knew was a miracle, nobody's standing around watching these miraculous things going, oh pfft, you know, whatever, prove it.

They knew those people were sick and they were being restored to health. They knew that person was speaking a language that they didn't previously know.

You had these Galilean men that were fishermen, most of them, that show up in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and they're speaking other languages.

When you read about that account there in Acts chapter 2, the people, when they see this happening, they say, these men are

Galilean, they're uneducated men. How is it that they speak all these different languages?

That's the response that they have to that. So they recognize that something miraculous is taking place and that miracle is affirming that this word is something prophetic.

It's something that comes from God. It's not from man, but from the Lord. So that's the context in Thessalonica.

Do not quench the Spirit, don't ignore what the Spirit of God is communicating to you through these miraculous signs and wonders.

Do not despise the prophecies. They did not have finished canon yet, right?

The entire word of the Lord, the Bible that we have, they didn't have all of this yet. Of course,

Thessalonians are reading one of those books that are going to end up going in here. So because canon had not yet been completed and the word of the gospel is still going forth, that word was confirmed by the performance of these miraculous signs and wonders.

When you get to 2 Peter chapter 1, which was what we went through right before we got to 1 Thessalonians, 2

Peter 1 says we have the word of God, the prophetic word, more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention to as to a light shining in a dark place until the morning star rises in your hearts, that you grow in godliness according to this word as well.

So we have the word of God that is confirmed through these miraculous signs and wonders.

Hi guys, didn't mean to call too much attention to you, but I was distracted by you coming in.

So welcome. Welcome, Sam and Pat. Good to have you here. So we have these miraculous signs affirming that what is said truly comes from God and that's what

Paul is telling the Thessalonians. Don't despise the prophecies, test them, and when they're good, love what it is that's being said.

When you know that what is being said is from God, love it, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

If you've tested those words and found them to be false words, then hate them and don't have anything to do with them.

That's Paul's instruction there. So how does that then apply to us? Because this isn't happening in the same fashion today.

No new word, no new prophecy is being given. There is nothing being exposed to us today that you cannot find in scripture.

As J .I. Packer said, if revelations disagree with the word of God, then they're false.

But if new revelations agree with the word of God, then they're needless. Right? Because we had the word of God.

You didn't need this person's revelation, we already had it in the word. So we do not have any new revelations that are being revealed to us today.

So how does this then apply? Do not quench the spirit, do not despise the prophecies, test everything, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

It means, very simply, that you do not quench what the spirit is saying to us through this.

Test everything according to this, according to the Bible. When we know that what is being said is in alignment with God's word, love it.

But if we know what's being said is contrary to what God has said in His word, hate it.

And abstain from every form of evil. Make sense? Okay, let's finish up the rest,

I've got to breeze through this in like three minutes. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our

Lord Jesus. He who calls you is faithful, He will surely do it. Boy, I love that.

I love the wording of that. Because this is Paul saying, this is an instruction that has been given to the

Thessalonians that they're supposed to follow. And yet Paul says that He who calls you is faithful and He will do it.

Going back to Philippians again, very similar to something that Paul said to the Philippians. Philippians 1 .6,

I am confident of this very thing. That He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

And as Paul would say later on in Philippians chapter 2, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is the will of God that works in you for His good pleasure.

So work out your own salvation, it is God who works in you for His good pleasure. We have an instruction that's given there for us to follow, but then we come to find that the work that is being done in us is not even our work anyway.

It's God's work, and He will complete that work. So continue to rely upon God who sustains us.

Jesus saved us, Jesus will keep us saved, amen? And He will bring us into glory.

Paul says, brothers, pray for us, greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. We don't do that in our present context, and especially in a season of COVID, I don't recommend it.

I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Something that we see pretty regularly come up in the scriptures, a call to have this read publicly.

Let the church hear it read, hear the word of the Lord and do what it says. And so Paul says the same at the conclusion of this, and the grace of our

Lord Jesus Christ is with us. That is 1 Thessalonians, and we've come to the conclusion of that letter for this semester.