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Sermon Notes: http://notes.cornerstonesj.org
Am I Chosen?
From 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 2, it says preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, and reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
We really need to be Berean and know the scripture and be able to recognize when there's some false teachers in the church.
And tonight we have a video presentation that Ivan is going to speak about. Is Ivan here again?
Jeff, do you know if Ivan is here? No? Ivan? Alright, so we have a video tonight called
Enemies Within the Church, and basically we want to recognize those that are teaching false doctrine, not in this church specifically, but in the church of Jesus Christ, we want to recognize when there's apostasy.
And we want to recognize it so that we can call it out. For example, Joel Cena is not a pastor, he's just a motivational speaker.
So we need to recognize when there's a problem in the church so we can call him out and keep the church pure.
Next Sunday night at 6 there is a hymn sing and Christmas songs that is here at the church.
There's a new precept study beginning on January 24th. The best commentary on scripture is scripture, and I highly recommend the precept study.
It is for women, but I highly recommend it because it gives you that wow factor to study the scripture on your own and not from a commentary, but it gives you that power to dig deeper into the word and learn from the
Holy Spirit, and it gives you ownership of the scripture so you can learn on your own through that study.
So please see Cindy Randall for more information to obtain a book from her. Also we have a missions moment.
I'd like to ask Louise to come up and talk about missions. Good morning.
Today our missions presentation is on Steve and Jan Hobson. And as you know he was a former pastor some years ago.
He and Jan are ministering in Manila, Philippines.
And Steve and Jan serve as faculty at the
International Graduate School of Leadership in Manila.
This graduate level seminary trains and equips leaders from all over Asia and parts of Africa to return to their home countries to be church planners, missionaries, pastors, parachurch leaders, teachers, and leaders in their sphere of influence.
Steve was on the executive leadership team of the school for 16 years and on the board of trustees for five years.
He designed and directed the school's two doctoral programs in transformational leadership and in peace studies.
Their peace studies programs consist of prisons and Steve and the students are penetrating the
Air Force. And there has been many people coming to Christ through his presentation he did for them and God blessed him to give his testimony in that presentation to the
Air Force and to those troops. And many souls have come to the
Lord through that presentation. And also in the prison ministry, God is raising up those students to bless the officers as well as the prisoners.
So they're doing a great job, a great work there. We want you to continue to pray for him and all of our missionaries.
On the back, I have handouts in the back for you. And in the back of those handouts are prayer requests from him.
And we also have this missionary contact directory, which has all of our missionaries in them.
And their contacts, their emails, some have telephones. But I tried calling one of the telephones because it's so far away, it wouldn't go through.
But who knows? You may try it and get through. But in any case, we have these outside there.
And continue to pray for them and pray for the harvest of souls that they are talking to.
Okay? Have a blessed day, everyone. Thank you. Amen.
Thank you, Louise. During this service, there is a women's adult
Bible fellowship. They are going through the Book of Daniel. So if you would like, you can come to the first service and then join the women for that in the classroom towards the front.
And they're going through the Book of Daniel. Monday night, there is a men's Bible study fellowship. Drew Deegan is heading that up here at the church on Monday nights at 7.
1 Corinthians says to be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, and be strong.
So their study is focusing on that scripture and how we can stand and be like men according to scripture and not according to the culture.
On Tuesdays at 9 .30 here at church, there is a women's Bible study led by Jill Deegan. You can reach out to her for more information for that.
And then Eileen, I'd like to have you come up, please. Good morning. I'm coming up this morning on behalf of our
Love Life Ministry, which is a ministry that's headed by Jonathan Leonard and I think also
Pastor Jeff as well. We've been meeting for some months now at the
Women's Center in Cherry Hill and doing a prayer walk and worship time out there, inviting
God's Spirit to be in that place and hopefully to move the hearts of the women and the girls that are coming there and making the awful choice to take the life of their babies.
I think probably a lot of you were here a few weeks ago when Options for Women had come in and brought their mobile unit, which is an amazing thing and I think it's going to be a wonderful blessing.
They had mentioned, I think it was 95 % of the women, the girls that have the ultrasound done and see their baby change their minds and keep that child.
So in light of that wonderful bit of statistic, Options is actually in need currently of some items, which you can see here if you want to take a screenshot.
And also there are some flyers on the table in the back if you want to take those while you're out and about through the rest of this
Christmas season and doing your shopping. Hopefully maybe you can scoot over into the baby's area or go online and try and locate the vitamins and the other things that might be a little harder to find and help support them.
We'll be doing it until January 9th, so we've got about four Sundays coming for collection and I'll be taking things over there in the interim.
I think what we're going to do is put a little baby crib, a little travel size crib in the back of the church as you come in there.
The front of the church, I don't know. So you can probably put the items in that.
If that's not there, then you're welcome to leave them over there on the bench. So thank you in advance for giving and Merry Christmas to everyone.
Thank you, Arlene. Continue to pray for that ministry. Stay connected, please, with the church.
We have a church center app that you can keep informed on meetings and events. We all recommend that.
We get different texts throughout the week on events. So please stay connected to the church so you can be updated.
Wednesdays at noon, we have an Isaiah study here in the sanctuary led by Pastor Jeff and Pastor John.
That's Wednesdays at noon. Recently, if you are a member, you received the email with the nominations for the board.
If you're a member and you got this, I please ask you to please look at the list, pray, ask the
Lord who he would have you to choose. We need an elder and two deacons for this year's nomination.
So please pray for that. And I need these as soon as possible because I did drop the ball in about a week late on the process.
So please get those forms to me. I do have some printed out if you need them. Lastly, in John, Chapter 10 records that Jesus was in Jerusalem and it was winter and it was at the
Feast of Dedication. The Feast of Dedication is not one of the original biblical feasts, but it is
Hanukkah. The word Hanukkah means dedication. And today when Hanukkah is celebrated, they use a menorah that's different from the biblical menorah.
It's actually called a Hanukkiah. It has two extra branches on it and it has one middle branch that's higher than the rest.
So that middle candle comes down to light the other candles. And the other thing, too, about that middle candle is called a shamash, which in English is translated servant.
And what an incredible illustration that the servant comes down to light the other candles.
And heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When at the cross, my
Savior made me whole. My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day.
This morning, as we worship and we think of Messiah coming as a baby to die for our sins,
I want to read Psalm 27 as we worship. One thing have
I asked of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the
Lord and to inquire in his temple. Father, thank you for sending your
Son to die on the cross for us, for our sins, in our place. Thank the
Lord for the gospel, for the salvation that we have in you, Lord, that you have chosen us.
Thank you for your grace. We pray, Lord, as we worship you, we give you the honor and the glory. We look unto you, the author and finisher of our faith.
Bless this time, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Will you stand with me?
Worship Christ, the newborn King. Watching o 'er your flock's flight is the infant light.
Come and worship, come and worship. Worship Christ, the newborn
King. He bathes us, he bathes us, he saves us.
We're raised this day upon us.
We welcome you here, Lord Jesus. We invite you here,
Lord Jesus. Let's come and worship. Worship Christ, the newborn
King. God is with us, even now his love is here.
Come and worship, worship Christ. God is with us, even now his love is here.
Amen. Jesus, Lord Jesus.
Emmanuel, Emmanuel. Lord Jesus, we welcome you here this morning.
O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant.
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come, let us adore him.
O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore him,
Christ the Lord. Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation.
O sing, all ye citizens of heaven.
Glory to God, glory in the highest.
O come, let us adore him. O come, let him,
Christ the Lord. We adore you.
We adore you. We adore you,
Jesus. We adore you.
We adore you, Jesus.
Jesus, we adore you.
Jesus. Reading from Matthew.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother
Mary had been betrothed to Jesus, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the
Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.
But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,
Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the one who has been conceived in her is from the
Holy Spirit. And he said, and she will bear a son.
And you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Now all this took place in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son.
And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us.
And Joseph got up from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took
Mary, his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son.
And he called his name Jesus. Many times, many times throughout this world, they don't get the whole purpose of Christmas.
They're taking Christ out of that. Let's be sure that we are rooted in the foundation that Jesus Christ loved us so much that he came from a perfect heaven to a disgustingly dirty earth full of sin because he loved us, because his perfect plan was not for us to spend eternity in hell but to spend it with him.
We need to worship him and praise him because he did come not as just a baby but as a man willing to die because of our sin.
Joy has dawned upon the world Promised from creation
God's salvation now unfurled
Hope for every nation Not with fanfares from above Not with scenes of glory
But a humble gift of love
Jesus born of Mary Sounds of wonder fill the sky
With the songs of angels As the mighty prince of life
Shelters in a stable Hands that set each star in place
Shape the earth in darkness Bring now to a mother's breast
Vulnerable and helpless Shepherds bow before the lamp
Gazing at the glory Gifts of men from distant lands
Prophesy the story Gold the king is born today
Incense God is with us Myrrh his death will make a way
By his blood he'll win us
Son of Adam, son of heaven Given as a ransom
Reconciling God and men Christ our mighty champion
What a savior, what a friend What a glorious mystery
Once a babe in Bethlehem Now the
Lord of history You may be seated.
Let us go to the Lord and ask his blessing on the hearing of his word.
Gracious Heavenly Father, this morning we come to you to open your word and ask that you would speak to us.
Lord, we pray that you would give conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment to those who have not yet been saved.
Lord, that you would save those who are comfortable but deceived. Lord, we pray for each of us that we would recognize that everything we have is a gift from the
Father of lights. You do not change like shifting shadows. We thank you most of all for grace that you graciously gave your one and only son.
That you sent the gospel to us that we would know of these things. That you quickened our hearts to believe and that you work in us to will and to do according to your good pleasure.
Lord, this morning as we read your word we pray that you would strengthen our faith by grace.
We look to you this morning in your word, in Jesus' name, amen. Long lay the world in sin and ever pining till he appeared.
But the Native Americans living in North America would not hear of this word for at least 1 ,492 years when
Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. And even then he didn't bring the gospel to North America.
It would be yet another 100 years or 200 years before the gospel broke forth to the
Native American people. Imagine yourself there. Growing up as a Native American in this region there were
Native Americans and they were without God. They lived in a land of thick darkness.
Their ethics were upside down which is also how they slept by the way. Did you know that husbands and wives in Indian culture,
North American Indian culture would sleep upside down from one another head to toe? That would be an interesting night's sleep especially if one tends to kick their legs a little bit.
You can get a toe in the ear. Well their ethics were a lot like that in terms of upside down ethics.
There was a practice of head hunting. Cannibalism was common. Not just among the
Aztecs. There was child sacrifice. There was suti which was the burying of widows when their husbands would die.
It was a dark and horrible culture. Sad culture.
Warfare was also extreme. It was the primary occupation of most men. Warring with other tribes.
The Carib Indians were cannibals and they depopulated the whole Caribbean islands.
The Taino Indians pled with Columbus to help them with the Carib Indians. Not a very bright start to my sermon but imagine being born into that darkness and compare that with the grace that has been upon us as a people.
Where the salt and light of the gospel has shaped a culture to some measure.
We should be so thankful for grace. I meet with a pastor in Teaneck, New Jersey.
He and I and a number of other pastors meet on Zoom a couple times a month. He is also a free church pastor.
His name is Phil Brainerd. He wrote this book, The Idols on the
Hills. I mention him this morning because he descends from the
Brainerd family. From whom also came one named
David Brainerd. Anybody know the name David Brainerd? Good, two people know of David Brainerd.
You will know of him today. I would encourage you to get his biography which was written by Jonathan Edwards.
The Life of David Brainerd. One of the best investments you can make. A Christmas gift to your spouse or to your children.
The Life of David Brainerd by Jonathan Edwards. David Brainerd was touched by the first great awakening.
The gospel, the new lights were breaking forth in the early
American colonies. This is maybe the 1720s when the first revivals actually began in New Jersey.
Then with Jonathan Edwards in Northampton in maybe 1737, the first great awakening really began.
In 1741, David Brainerd was a student at Yale. Did you know that Yale was once a seminary preparing faithful men for the gospel?
David Brainerd noticed that the old lights of that university were not often filled with grace.
They were departing like Harvard had. He made a comment in 1741 that one of his professors showed as much sign of having grace as this chair.
Which is why he was thrown out of school. Now later he would reconcile with the leadership of that school.
But he was no longer a student at Yale. What he decided to do in short order was to go as a missionary to the
Native Americans. He moved up to Albany, New York, just close to Albany, and began to work with Native Americans.
A few of them showed some interest, but by and large there was no movement towards Christ. He moved to the
Forks of the Delaware, not far from here where New Jersey meets Pennsylvania.
There he worked with another tribe and he had a translator whose name was Tadamy. Brainerd would speak in English and Tadamy would translate into the
Native American tongue. So Tadamy would hear the gospel through the preaching of David Brainerd.
At one point David Brainerd left from there and went home for a visit. And while he was gone,
Tadamy contemplated the things he had been translating. And by a supernatural, sovereign work of grace, his heart came alive.
Tadamy was born again. And so when David Brainerd went to Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to reach the
Iroquois Indians, Tadamy was born again there to preach as a believer as well.
But they were resistant to the gospel. The Iroquois did not believe. And David Brainerd became very depressed.
During all of these years of his ministry, he had tuberculosis. So he would be coughing up blood often and he was just very much in pain.
And this depression began to settle over him because he saw so little fruit. Finally he came to the place where revivals ought to begin, which is south and central
New Jersey. And there he went to the Lenni Lenape, the
Lenape Indians, at a place called Crosswicksong. Anybody ever been to Crosswicks, New Jersey?
You guys know it? Nice. And then they moved from there to I forget the name of it, but close by, central
New Jersey. It was called Cranberry, Cranberry, New Jersey. And there he did what he had been doing.
He preached the message of Jesus Christ. But this time, by God's sovereign, free grace, the hearts of the people lit on fire.
It began with a few women and then some leading men, and then the whole tribe began to turn from idols and believe in the
God that David Brainerd had been preaching. Now, for a hundred years, they had heard rumblings about the
God of the Christians amongst the settlers, but very few Native Americans had come.
They actually thought that their gods were more powerful. And David Brainerd, in his journal, records some of the ways that they thought.
He says that they thought they were a higher creation than the European settlers. That God had earlier created the
Europeans and then when he had really worked out the kinks and gotten better at what he was doing, he created them.
Or some thought that they were from a different god. But what controlled the
Native American people was a fear of spirits. They would have what were called powwows.
You guys ever have a powwow in your house? When you've got to hash some things out, you have a powwow. Well, a powwow was conjuring spirits, it was dancing around a fire, a number of things of this nature, and it controlled the people in fear.
The witch doctors, the conjurers, would consult the people, and David Brainerd tells about how here in New Jersey, about 30 minutes from where we are, there was a man who was in fear of the spirits.
And he went to the conjurer and he said, why am I having these hard times?
And the witch doctor said, it's because when you shot a deer and took it, you had promised the gods that day that you would offer that deer as a sacrifice, but you didn't keep your promise.
Well, strangely, that was in fact the very thing that happened. He had made that promise, and then he had kept the deer for himself.
How did this witch doctor know that? Well, David Brainerd says he knew it because the same demonic spirit that told him to make the promise also told the conjurer what he had said.
There was spiritual warfare going on here. So Brainerd recognized he needed to do battle with the forces of evil.
And so he would teach the people, nothing can happen to you apart from what our
God allows, for he is the sovereign God who holds the whole world in his hand.
And everything that he ordained shall come to pass. You cannot prolong your days, neither can you shorten them.
All is within his sovereign decree. He preached this way to them, and still they did not believe.
And so David Brainerd said, look at me, surely the conjurers and the witch doctors who threaten you that if you would leave and go to Christianity, they would strike you dead, look at me, why don't they strike me dead?
And so he set himself up as an example of God's protection. And there he continued to preach.
Finally he called the witch doctors together and all of the tribe, and he issued this challenge, have a powwow, do your worst, call on your gods to slay me, and here
I stand. And he prayed for God's protection. And he preached the gospel, and in that conviction, in that Holy Spirit fire, in that power from God, the
Native American people recognized the true God, Jesus Christ. And so the first great revival among the
Native Americans happened at Cranberry, New Jersey. And David Brainerd continued for four years with them, and the whole tribe came to faith, and word of their conversion spread to the
Iroquois, and all over, and there was a touching of the Native American people for the next 40 years in the first great awakening.
It all started through the preaching of David Brainerd, right here. He actually was on his way back up to Connecticut, he had fallen so ill with tuberculosis that he stopped at a reverend's house, who took care of him for a time,
Reverend Dickinson, and while he was there in his last months, Dickinson founded a college.
He had his first students come into his home, the College of New Jersey, which was then renamed
Princeton. Brainerd was in the home, dying of tuberculosis when the first classes of Princeton University and Seminary met.
And then he went on up to Northampton, and he ended up dying in Jonathan Edwards' home.
But not before he fell in love with Edwards' daughter, who cared for him.
Jerusha took care of David Brainerd for his last weeks, serving him. And she also caught his tuberculosis and died four months later, and they're buried next to each other in Northampton.
David Brainerd's testimony lives on through the journals that he wrote. And Jonathan Edwards then took those journals and published the book on it,
The Life of David Brainerd, which I commend to you. These men were touched by fire.
Maybe you've never heard of the First Great Awakening, but under the preaching of George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd to the
Native Americans, the fire of the gospel burned through the colonies. It gave birth to this country.
It was a great awakening, a turning to Christ. It was the power of God displayed.
It was an act of his free and sovereign grace. As you sit here this morning, do you recognize that everything you have comes from sovereign grace?
The gospel that I preached this morning, the message of Jesus crucified and risen, is a gift from God that came to you.
For 1500 years, Native Americans never heard it. Continents lay in darkness, awaiting the light to come to them.
But it's come to you, and you heard it from the lips of those who believe what they preach, like Brainerd and Edwards and Whitefield.
And something stirred in your heart to believe it, and it changed your whole life. It turned an upside -down life right side up.
All of this is the power of God. This morning, I have a question to pose to you. It is a very important question, perhaps the most important question you could ask.
And it is a troubling one. I want you to be uncomfortable this morning.
That question is, am I chosen? Ask that of yourself.
Am I chosen? Nowadays in evangelicalism, there is a tradition that if anybody raises their hand at the end of a sermon, or comes forward to an altar, or prays a prayer, the preacher will tell them right away, you are saved.
And you can be sure of it. But that is not the testimony of Scripture. The Scripture says, examine yourself to see if you are in the faith.
The Scripture says that we are to approach God with fear and trembling. But ultimately, the
Scripture does promise assurance of salvation to the child of God. Now assurance of salvation and the fact of salvation are two separate things.
You are born again through faith. And that is a reality that does not change. Assurance of salvation can sometimes wane and strengthen.
David Brainerd, for most of his life, lacked assurance of salvation. Because he was so melancholy, so often depressed, and because he suffered so much from tuberculosis, he wondered am
I truly in a state of grace? But in his dying, he came to an assurance of salvation.
And he was strong in that when he died. Turn with me this morning to 1
Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 4 to 10. In the grace of God, we have
Scripture given to us, which answers that question. The way in which you can answer the question, am
I chosen? Comes from 1 Thessalonians 1, 4 to 10.
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you.
Not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
You know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord. For you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the
Holy Spirit. So that you became an example to the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.
For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything.
For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you. And how you turned to God from idols to serve the living
God. And to wait for his Son from Heaven whom he raised from the dead,
Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. So last week as we began the book of Thessalonians we recounted how the
Thessalonians came to saving faith. It was nothing of their own doing. God sent
Paul and Silas and Timothy to them with the message of salvation.
And he opened their hearts to believe. And so faith and hope and love are described as a gift.
In verses 1 to 3 we see the apostle giving thanks to God, verse 2, for their faith, hope and love, verse 3.
So the credit when anyone is saved belongs only and exclusively to God himself.
Salvation is of the Lord. It is not our doing. It is the rescue of a sovereign
God. Now if God were to rescue nobody but let us all depart in sin into darkness, in eternal separation from him, into the fire of hell, he would be just and righteous in so doing.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death. So if God passed over all humanity and saved none, he would be just so let no one complain.
But in his mercy he chooses to save. And so we have in verse 4, we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you.
Somebody here or listening online will object to that language. May I submit that your beef is not with me but with this.
Your qualm is with the language of the text itself. Brothers loved by God.
This speaks not of a universal love as in John 3 .16 for God so loved the world.
There is a general love of God for his creation. But the context here refers to a specific love of a husband for the bride.
As in Ephesians 5 .25 that Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
To wash her and sanctify her. So it says brothers loved by God. This is a particular specific love.
The way I as a husband love my wife. And that love is different more specific, more particular than the love
I have for women in general. Aren't you glad that there's a difference in the kinds of love that I experience?
And wives you should say amen to that to your husbands. And if that be so among us, how much more is
God free to love particularly? And to exercise a special love for the church.
A saving love. And that is why it says that he has chosen you. The text here says that it was
God's choice. Now it raises the question well if God is so free to choose to bestow this love upon a sinner and I'm one of the sinners that can bring nothing to the table.
I don't deserve grace anymore than my next door neighbor. Or your next door neighbor.
What makes me different? And how do I know that I am chosen?
Wouldn't you love it if the Bible just told us? Well it does. Because the next verse, look at verse 5, it says because the context of verse 4 we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you.
Here's how you can know that you are chosen. Isn't that good news? The Bible wants you to be anxious about this question and then it wants to answer it for you.
So pay attention to the text and love what God says here because it's where our assurance comes from.
The first thing our gospel came to you not only in word stop there it's not less than word.
He'll go on to say point number two but point number one is the gospel must come in word.
Now the Native Americans who lay in sin and darkness had no knowledge of what
Christ did in 33 AD. And apart from sovereign grace
I would have no knowledge of it either and neither would you. You did nothing to get the gospel to you.
It was the gift of God that someone came preaching. Romans 10 verses 13 to 17.
How can you believe unless somebody preaches to you? And how can somebody preach unless they are sent?
It is the sovereign will of God to commission and send the David brainers to the tribes and the missionaries to the end of the earth and whoever it was that brought the gospel to you this is a work of sovereign grace.
For me it was my parents telling me about Jesus. That name.
The name that saves. How do I know the name? Salvation is found in no one else.
For there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. And that name is Jesus.
He's the one who died for us. He's the one that rose from the dead. And you hear this message by the grace of God.
Not of anything that you contribute. Amen? Certainly by grace.
Couldn't control these things whatsoever. And there is no salvation in any other. So the first thing is the power of God comes to you in word.
The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
It is the power of God in salvation that you would first of all hear the word but look at the second thing also in verse 5.
Our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the
Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Now when I first read those words
I thought to myself yeah this will refer to the effectual call. The power of the Holy Spirit drawing me to believe what somebody's telling me.
But I don't think that's what the text is referring to. Because look at the rest of verse 5.
It says you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake.
Therefore in the train of thought of the author the power the Holy Spirit the full conviction refers to Paul and Silas and Timothy the authors of this book when they went to Thessalonica they didn't come in prancing around.
They didn't come in suggesting they didn't come in offering another opinion.
They came in and denounced the idols of the pagan Thessalonians who worshipped the pantheon at Mount Olympus.
They came in and they confronted those gods headlong and said that they were idols and proclaimed with conviction and power and the
Holy Spirit that this Jesus is the son of God. That was a gift to the
Thessalonians. They provided a plausibility structure that herein is an example of a believer in Christ.
There was no doubt in the minds of any Thessalonian that Paul believed what he was preaching.
And brothers and sisters the example of other Christians is an outward gift from God that doesn't come from us.
Just as valuable as John 3 16 that my parents gave me was the example that they lived before me.
My mom and my dad who taught me the gospel lived the gospel and I saw it with my eyes and I wanted to be and want to be like my dad.
Some of you had parents like that as well. Others it wasn't your parents but it was some missionary.
It was some Sunday school teacher. It was somebody in your life who came telling you about Jesus and you saw conviction and the
Holy Spirit and power in their life. And that is part of what drew you to saving faith.
It was a gift from God. It cannot be faked. It cannot be manufactured.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit. No actor can portray it. Even Jesse Smollett.
It has to come from God. And it doesn't always have to be big and demonstrative.
Sometimes it's quiet and the power is in the gentle and quiet spirit.
We mentioned Jonathan Edwards his wife was named Sarah. And Jonathan described his wife this way at one point.
Aren't you glad I'm already this far in my notes? I'm already halfway done. Jonathan Edwards describing
Sarah. On July 28, 1727 he married
Sarah Pierpont of whom he wrote she has a strange sweetness in her mind.
She's most just and conscientious in all her conduct. You could not persuade her to do anything wrong or sinful if you would give her all the world.
She will sometimes go about from place to place singing sweetly and seems always to be full of joy and pleasure and no one knows for what.
I love that description that Jonathan gives of his wife. He watches her. Couldn't convince her to do anything wrong or sinful.
And you'll catch her singing. And she just has this happiness. This joy.
And nobody knows why she's so happy. We know why. And so did he.
The Holy Spirit was in her and that was the fruit of the Spirit. It wasn't big and bold like Jonathan preaching sinners in the hands of an angry
God. It wasn't demonstrative like Whitfield. It wasn't daring and edgy like Brainerd laying down his life fighting the powwows of the witch doctors.
It was the gentle and quiet spirit of a believing wife. It was the power of the
Holy Spirit to show the truth of the Gospel. Have you seen it? Do you have that grace in your life?
Have you seen a believer who lives what he preaches? That is a gift from God. Third, there must be an internal work of the
Spirit. It says in verse 6, and you became imitators of us and of the
Lord. For you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the
Holy Spirit. Now the author connects in verse 6 the reception of this word with verse 5.
What they saw modeled in Paul and Silas and Timothy has now become internal to them in a matter of weeks.
He was only with them for three weeks and yet it's the same Holy Spirit who has done this internal work and given them joy.
I can preach this Gospel until I'm blue in the face. And even if I do it, amen, and even if I lived it out perfectly, flawlessly, putting no obstacle in your way,
I cannot revive a dead heart. There is a supernatural work of grace that only
God can give. Jesus put it this way in John 6 44, no one comes to me,
Jesus said, no one comes to me unless the Father draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.
This kind of drawing, being drawn of the Father, being given of the Father, John 6 37, is a gift of God.
It is the work of God that no person can manufacture. You can't manufacture it in yourself and you can't certainly do it for somebody else.
It's the effectual calling. You know that God works all things together for good, to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
But have you read on? Those whom he predestined, he also called.
And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.
According to Romans 8 30, what's called the golden chain of redemption.
It is God who predestines. It is God who calls.
It is God who justifies and it is God who glorifies. And that chain cannot be broken because God is the active one at every link in the chain.
It's even spoken in the past tense as a settled reality. God predestined.
But what is that second term? Called. This is the effectual calling. It's when the gospel goes to you and the
Spirit of God calls your heart to life because you were born in Adam's sin and therefore you were dead in Adam.
I didn't say you were sick. I said you were dead.
The Bible describes your heart and my heart as dead in sin like a stone.
Blind eyes, deaf ears. We can't hear, we can't see and we certainly cannot do what
God calls us to do. Romans 8 7 and 8, we can't exercise faith even if we hear the gospel.
This is bad news. You're so dead there's nothing you can do. But the sovereign grace of God can move on a dead heart and turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh.
Open deaf ears, open blind eyes and all of a sudden the sinner who was dead in trespasses and sins is made alive together with Christ.
It is by grace you have been saved. For it is by grace through faith not of works lest anybody would boast.
Listen, we cannot save ourselves.
Grace is required to bring to life the dead heart and this is what happened to the
Thessalonians in verse 6. It's a joy of the Holy Spirit, a supernatural joy.
Jesus told a parable that you need to hear because this is the true teaching. Jesus told a parable about four soils, four different kinds of soils and these soils represent the hearts of people in this room and listening.
The first soil was like a cart path. The second was rocky, the third had thorns and thistles and the fourth was a good soil.
When the gospel, the seed of the word falls on the first soil, it doesn't get into the ground, the birds of the air come and eat it up.
The second soil is rocky and when the seed falls in, it goes into the ground and produces a plant but it withers as soon as the sun beats down on it.
The third soil gives birth to this plant but then thorns entangle it and it chokes it to death.
But the fourth soil is good soil and when the seed goes in, it comes forth and produces a plant which produces fruit.
Thirty, sixty, ninety times what was sown. Here is the meaning of the parable. There are many who will receive the seed of the word even with joy.
That means they walked an aisle, that means they raised a hand, that means they signed their names on a decision card and they were happy to do it.
Matthew 13 says that they receive it with joy but when persecution comes, when tribulation hits, when the sun beats down, the plant withers and dies.
It was a false conversion and the thorns represent the desires of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth and these things choke out the plant.
But the good soil, oh, the good soil, that's supernatural soil.
That's the work of God in the heart that even when persecution comes, the joy remains.
Look again at verse six. This is how you know it's a supernatural faith that the
Thessalonians have. They receive the word in much affliction. When they couldn't find
Paul, they grabbed Jason and they were beating him and he had to pay money. They extorted money and it didn't make him resent the gospel, it didn't make him question
God, why are you letting these bad things happen to me? It let him rejoice all the more that he was counted worthy for suffering dishonor for the sake of the name.
You see, Jason and Thessalonica had a true supernatural faith.
Joy was the mark of it. Do you have that? Has God's grace touched your heart?
When you walk along the road and you hear the scriptures, does your heart burn?
Are you excited to see how all of the law and the prophets are fulfilled in Christ? Does your heart burn to hear about that?
To hear more about the Savior? A supernatural work is required to make your heart burn and come alive.
This is the miracle of regeneration, only God can do it. Now the last two quickly, notice they are repentance and faith.
Verse 7 says, you became an example so this is their faith on display to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.
For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.
There's a reputation of how the Thessalonians had been converted. Now when Paul goes to Corinth, he's writing this letter in 51
AD back to the Thessalonians and he's saying, listen, everybody knows about your conversion.
They've heard how different you are, how you preach and now they're telling me, oh yeah, yeah, we already heard this
Paul. This Thessalonian came and told us. He says in verse 9, for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living
God. Repentance and faith. Evidence number 4, repentance.
You've turned from your idols. There are things that you once held dear. For me it was basketball.
In college, basketball was my idol. It was ahead of academics. It was ahead of God in my heart.
For some of you it's your career right now. For others it's still sports. The deceitfulness of well, the desires of this world, the pleasures of sin, sexual sins.
Many of these idols, the Thessalonians had them but they turned away. That is the nature of repentance.
Listen, there are many who think they're saved because they prayed a prayer but they've never repented.
They've never turned from idols. It's not a genuine conversion because they're still identifying in their sin and they're still continuing without remorse.
Now nobody will be perfect but an unrepentant person is not a saved person.
Faith is the last mark. Faith, hope and love, the work of faith, hope and love as we saw back in verse 3.
You're still looking for Jesus. You're continuing to believe and you're serving the living
God. You're looking for opportunities. There are people who are serving in the back right now to run the sound system.
It's not because I'm paying them anything. They just want to and we have teachers teaching kids right now because they want kids to know what they have and so many ministries in this church.
It's coming from the hearts of the people. It's the evidence of faith that you would want to work for your king.
That that would be the desire of your heart. Really quickly I want to show you that there are marks of salvation in the book of 1st
John that demonstrate the new birth. I'm going to show you four verses real quickly.
1st John 2 .29 and after this we'll end I promise. 2 .29,
3 .9 4 .7 and 5 .7 Turn with me to 1st
John. Now each of these verses employ the term have been born of God.
Has been born of God. And then it shows something that must be there what necessarily necessarily follows from being born again.
To be born of God is to be born again. It's the theological term for it is regeneration.
That you've been regenerated. You've been made alive. You have the new birth. Here are the four marks of that and they fit under this fifth category of a changed life.
Now you're living and you're working. 1st John 2 .29 If you know that he is righteous you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
The sign of the new birth is that you practice righteousness.
Doesn't mean you're perfect at it but you're practicing righteousness. You're looking to serve. You're going down to Camden and meeting on Thursday nights with men in recovery.
John right? This is a practice. This is part of your life. Secondly chapter 3 verse 9
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning for God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
The chosen the genuinely chosen, the regenerated breaks the old pattern of sin.
I know that's a scary verse to read because you're thinking I still sin. As we all do, as John knows 1st
John 1. If anybody says that they don't sin, he's a liar. We all sin.
When we sin we're to confess our sins but here's the issue here, the practice of sin. It says anyone who makes a practice of sin has not been born of God.
That is this unrepentant heart that does the same sin everyday or regularly without remorse, without repentance and when a person stumble, they wouldn't get help.
They wouldn't come to a pastor or an elder and ask for help and accountability because they love that sin and it is their practice.
The point that John is making is that a genuine new birth brings a new practice and it is a break with the old life.
We must make a break with the old life if we're genuinely converted. 4 .7 Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows
God. The 3rd Mark according to John is the love of the brethren and here this is the church.
He's referring to the church. You have a love to be in church and as I see you're here you must love the people you're with.
That's why you come, right? And that's why you stay and visit with people and check on them to see how they're doing when they fall ill.
You call them. You pray for your brothers and your sisters. You love them.
That is an evidence of being born again. The love of the brother and then lastly interestingly,
John uses the same. This is chapter 5 verse 1. I wrongly in the notes said verse 7 but it's chapter 5 verse 1.
It is the ongoing faith itself. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the
Christ has been born of God which tells me faith is like practicing righteousness, breaking away from sin, loving the brother.
It is the fruit of the new birth. Theologically if you want to study this a little deeper, what
I'm saying is that regeneration precedes faith. You can't believe until he renews your heart.
You must be born of him to have faith. That's what it says in verse 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the
Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him.
All this to say that fifth mark of a changed life, you're practicing faith, hope and love.
You're making a break from the idolatry that you once held dear. You're loving the brethren and your faith continues.
It wasn't just a one time decision. I have decided to follow
Jesus. That's part of it. There's a willingness that comes from you, but it's a willingness that comes only after the new birth.
You must be regenerated to have a heart to believe. Your dead heart must come alive first.
It's a sovereign work of grace. Every point in closing, every point we study today is owed to sovereign grace.
You didn't save yourself. It came to you outwardly.
The gospel was heralded. You heard the words of life. You saw the lives of the people preaching to you and you examined their fruit and you questioned, do
I really want to leave the Roman Catholic Church to follow that evangelical religion?
And you checked their lives and you saw the outcome of their lives in the language of Hebrews 13.
And that was part of your conversion. But ultimately it was the drawing of God, the
Holy Spirit that enlivened you and gave you life. And the result was you gladly turned away from idols.
You turned to God and you served the living God. Those are the marks of genuine conversion. So the question is, am
I chosen? I can't answer that question for you. I know that I know that I know that I'm chosen.
Based on the word of God. And I give all the glory to him.
I did nothing to contribute to this. You can know that too. You can have assurance of your salvation from the words of this text.
David Brainerd struggled his whole life with assurance of salvation, but he kept going back to the word and whenever he did, the words of the gospel reassured his faith and strengthened him.
If you're struggling with assurance, I'm glad. I know that sounds kind of mean, but I'm glad.
I'd rather you struggle with assurance than assume that you're saved if you're not.
David Brainerd in his dying weeks wrote a letter to his brother Israel and said brother,
I'm afraid that you are not yet in the state of grace because I do not see that in your life.
Harsh words to write to his brother, but loving words. And his brother
Israel came to that assurance of salvation later on. Examine yourself to see if you're in the faith.
Do so by the words given us here. We know that you are chosen because of the things written.
Before I close in prayer, I wanted to close with the words of Charles Spurgeon. He made this observation about his own life and how everything he has comes from sovereign grace.
My life seems to me like a fairy dream. I am often both amazed and dazed with its mercies and its love.
How good God has been to me. I used to think that I should sing among the saints above as loudly as any.
For I owe so much to the grace of God. And I said so once in a sermon long ago, quoting these lines.
Then loudest of the crowd I'll sing while heavens resounding mansions ring with shouts of sovereign grace.
What did Spurgeon and Brainerd and Edwards and Whitfield and Calvin and Luther and all these men have in common?
They understood that salvation was all of grace. God's free election.
If you don't know that you're chosen, go with the word of God alone to Him and ask
Him to give you that assurance. If you don't know that you're saved, beg before His throne.
Lord, save me. I can't save myself. Have mercy on me. And that work itself is a work of grace.
If you call upon the name of Jesus, you will find Him to be a perfect Savior.
He will save you. Call upon the name.
Don't assume that going to church means you're born again. Don't.
Make your calling and election sure. Take these words seriously.
Heed them and so be saved. Let's pray. God, we are so thankful for your word to us.
It is true love to us that you tell us the truth. Lord, we pray for any who have heard the preaching of this word, that they would call upon the name of Jesus.
We thank you that you send your gospel out to the ends of the earth. We pray that you open their hearts to believe, that you give them the new birth.
Open their eyes that they may see. Open their ears that they may hear. Give them a new heart to replace the heart of stone.
And Lord, I pray for those of us here with a sensitive conscience and doubts and fears and anxieties about their relationship with you.
We pray that the words of 1 Thessalonians 1 would be comfort to them, the balm of Gilead, that they would know that they are chosen.
Because it was you that gave them the gospel in the first place and you that gave them models of the gospel and you that makes their heart warm to these things and you that is turning them away from idols to serve the living
God. It's all of you, God. So we give you the thanks. We give you the praise.
Sola Dei Gloria. To God be the glory and to you alone receive the glory.
Do your name. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We will trust
God's word alone where his perfect will is known.
Our traditions shift like sand. While his truth forever stands.
We will have faith alone clothed in merit not our own.
All we claim is Jesus Christ and his finished sacrifice.
Glory be, glory be to God alone.
Through the church he redeemed and made his own.
He has freed us. He will keep us till we're safely home.
We are saved by grace alone. Undeserved yet freely shown.
No accomplishments on earth can achieve the second birth.
We will stand of Christ alone. The unyielding cornerstone nations rage and devils roam.
See forever glory be, glory be to God alone.
I'm going to stay up front here. If there's anybody struggling with your salvation, I would like to pray with you and encourage you.
If there's other elders that are able to be near the front, we'd pray with you. Next week, we'll move on to a
Christmas sermon. So it will be a very, very much a gospel presentation.
It will be the opportunity to just preach the pure gospel to those who would hear. May the
Lord give them ears to hear. So bring a friend. Bring someone that needs to hear the gospel next
Sunday. Let's go to the benediction in the words of 2
Thessalonians 2 .13 and following. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you.
Brothers, be loved by the Lord because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the
Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us either by our spoken word or by our letter.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.