What the World Needs Now (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 Jeff Kliewer)

Good morning, brothers and sisters in the Lord, it is awesome to be here. I was sharing with the folks at the first service, I like to be on time for things, and I do look forward to our times together this morning.

My wife got up a little bit earlier than normal this morning, and I leaned over to look at my clock to see what time it was, and I had another good half hour that I could sleep, so I just put the clock down and it fell on the floor, and I thought, fine, whatever, I got plenty of time.

So eventually I woke up and I leaned over and I picked up the clock and I looked at it, and first service starts at 9 o 'clock, and my clock said 8 .59, and I go, oh boy, and then I turned it over and it actually said 6 .58.

So I made first service. The Psalms say the Lord is my light and my salvation, and I really get drawn in when I see the personal pronouns in something like that. He is my light and he is my salvation.

We as a body, we know that God is the creator, we know that he is sovereign. Having this relationship that's ordained by God, it's a gift from God that I can call him my light, my salvation, and it goes on to say, whom shall I fear?

I've got God on my side, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? We're here together worshiping because we have this personal relationship with God, one by the blood of Christ on the cross, given to us as a gift, and then this one another that we get to share with each other.

It's an awesome thing. We have some announcements that are of importance. After first service, we've been announcing this, we ask that you would stay. At 12 o 'clock we're actually going to have a special congregational meeting.

We in January addressed the concept of a land procurement that we might go for, and we've asked you to be in prayer about it. We're going to continue the dialogue and see where God takes us today. There will be, for those who are not here right now, if you're watching this on livestream, there is a Zoom option, there was an email that would have sent out, so you can join us remotely for those who are watching us livestream right now.

Three weeks after that, there is our annual meeting, we're starting to announce that. It's on the 14th of March. We call it the election meeting. It's when we affirm the elder, the deacon, the chairman that will be part of the new board and also the budget.

It's an important meeting because it's our participation setting the stage for how we're going to proceed for the next calendar year. I want you to continue to pray. Last week we made an announcement, and if you didn't hear it last week, a week ago Saturday our prayer walk, the Love Life prayer walk on Kings Highway outside the Women's Center.

God worked in the heart of a young lady, and she turned around and didn't go in. There is a young life created in the image and likeness of God that will see the light of day. We do pray for that young woman because in the days, weeks to come, Satan will continue to attack her and try to change her mind to go back.

We pray for her. We pray for this young child to be born, grow up into a young man, a young woman in love with God, so we rejoice in that. We want to ask you to continue to consider, especially for the gentlemen at this point in time, for the prison ministry, Pen Pal ministry that's going on.

I understand there's already three and a half. What do you mean a half? Well, there's one gentleman that's right on the edge, and we're praying him over the edge to be part of it, but that will be potentially four individuals that can be encouraged by mail.

This is something I read. This is something I saw, the testimonies that Jill read to us last week. Be in consideration of that. Our regular schedule goes on tonight. We have our prayer meeting. We've been having a great group of people come on out.

We encourage you to come out as we pray for the ministries of the church and for those in our church that are in need and for our missionaries throughout the world. We have our care group ministries that go on.

You can see those on our website. We have Monday night. We have the men's apologetics class Monday night, the women's precepts, Tuesday morning women's precepts, all of these opportunities. Please take the opportunity to be with them.

And there, a little tease, you're going to hear an announcement in just a minute. There's another group, a special group, that's going to be launched soon. So we'll talk about that in just a minute. We had an incredible outpouring of people interested.

We had our January starting point class. We actually had 28 people involved with that. This is awesome. If you were involved with that, I encouraged you to fill out a membership application if that's your heart.

We also sent out an email. So if you were there, part of it, I encourage you to fill that app out, get it turned in to myself, Pastor Jeff, one of the board members, so that we can continue to process you with that.

28 people in just the last month, and there's already six more that want it. And so the desire is there. We're going to have another starting point class in March 13, 2027. If you did not make the last one and you're interested, see me, see Pastor Jeff, or just show up on March 13.

If you've already taken it, but you really would like to hear it again, because I was such a great teacher, well, come on out. There's actually one person who's doing that, so that's half tongue in cheek.

Pastor Jeff wants to express his appreciation for the prayer support that you gave him this past Tuesday. As he met with the Eastern District of the EFCA, the Board of Ministerial Services, to talk about Woke Free, you empowered him by going in front of the throne and beseeching on the Lord and the gift of the Holy Spirit and the power that was given into Jeff to speak with confidence.

So he wants to say thank you for that. And at this time, I'm going to ask, oh, wait a minute, come up. One second. I had another one that was thrown in. On this Saturday at 10 o 'clock, there is a ladies' social.

It does show up on Pastor Jeff's Pastorgram. So if you're interested in it, right now, Jill Deegan, she's teaching a class. She would be the best to ask what it's about. But it's a women's social event here in the church at 10 o 'clock, so all the women are invited.

Now I'm ready for you.

Marriage, Growth, and a New Couples Group

Good morning. My name is Bill Biddle.

And I am Janice Biddle.

And we've been married for 53 years.

But we're not marriage experts.

We didn't have a clue when we first got married about what was all involved in marriage. But God's desire is that marriage matters. And there's a lot we can be learning, and we've been learning throughout our lives.

And because of that, we're going to be starting a group for married couples on Wednesday nights where we're going to be using the Bible and a book called A Couple's Guide to Growing Marriage by Gary Chapman.

And we'll be using that time as an opportunity for sharing and for discussions and hopefully learning to be better husbands and wives.

So whether you think your marriage is pretty solid or you think it has a long way to go, you will be challenged. You will be encouraged. You will be equipped by practicing some of God's principles with your spouse and by discussing those principles with other couples.

This group will begin on Wednesday, March 9th at our house and last for 12 weeks. Bill and I will be here in the front of the church after the service today and before the meeting that we're all having together.

And if you're interested in coming or if you have any questions, please come and talk to.

Us.

Your marriage matters.

And I want to say that's awesome, 53 years. Bill you chose a winner. You didn't do bad yourself, Janice. Let's pray. Father, we want to come to you with adoration for all that you do for us with a reality that we are totally undeserving.

We are sinners, but the love of God sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. If we celebrate that gift, we celebrate that love. Pray Father that we as a people here locally would be growing in you.

We would be seeking after you. We would be desiring the power of your Holy Spirit that we would walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the desires of the flesh. That our lives would be radiating to a lost world, the love of Christ.

Father, I pray for the depth of spiritual growth for each one of us, listening and taking in the word of Pastor Jeff and then checking the scriptures as Bereans and spending our time in study of the word, joining it in prayer, maybe being in small groups or even discipling another.

We pray Lord, we pray Lord for that depth of spiritual growth. Be with our missionaries, Lord, around the world who are taking the lamp to a lost land. This month we think of the Degenes in France and we have others who are in difficult places.

Give them your strength, protect them, keep them healthy we pray, dear Lord. We even think of our missionaries who are struggling with illnesses. Protect them, Lord. Father, we're in awe of the power of your Holy Spirit to change the heart of a person and this young lady who was touched by your spirit and turned around, did not go into that abortion clinic.

We say thank you and protect her now, Lord, from any of the attacks of doubt. We pray that she would stand firm to this decision and Lord, that you would draw her to you, that she would come to you in faith and accept you as Lord and Savior.

For this child that will be born and see the light of day, we thank you for that gift of life and that this child will grow into a young man, a young woman in love with you. Lord, we do pray for Ryan as he continues healing the burns that he sustained and he's down in Texas with treatments.

The information is positive, we learn now that the burns are predominantly in the body and not on the face. We thank you for that mercy. We pray for a man named Bill, friends of Ron Delp, an elderly gentleman recently up in the Poconos.

He slipped and fell on the ice cleaning snow, hit his head, ended up having surgery because his brain was bleeding. We pray, Father, that the medical people treated him with wisdom. We pray, Lord, you as the great physician will heal him, be with his family also.

Lord, we ask for your wisdom later as we meet as a body to discuss the question of our facility, of our land, that we would be united in you because this is all about your kingdom work. Now Lord, as Pastor Jeff opens up First Thessalonians and we start to see the definition of true love, pray that you would speak powerfully through him, that your spirit would empower him and prepare our hearts.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

The One True God and the Exclusivity of Salvation

Help us focus on the one true God. I heard just a part of a sermon a few days ago, it was by Alistair Begg, and he said that one of Satan's evil plans is to deceive mankind to believe that a good God will reward nice people for doing their best.

And it just struck me to hear it said that way, that a good God would reward nice people for doing their best. To say it another way, just believing the lie that religion in and of itself, religion saves, that morality saves, and that good works save.

And that there is not only one way to eternal life, but there could be many ways to eternal.

Life.

I wanted to take the opportunity to quote from Pastor Graham for the Laskins group, they came up with the mission statement, to know the truth, to live the truth, and to spread the truth. And this is the truth, the truth is there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which man must be saved.

First Timothy, for there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. And Thessalonians, I'm sorry, Ephesians 4, there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Let's stand and let's praise and worship the one true God this morning.

Of a thousand burning suns, blazing in the heavens, there is only one, he is our, silencing and grows faint, the darkness will trust in my soul, will wake my soul, my stronghold, my salvation, my steadfast hope, that won't be shaken, my soul will wake, my soul will confer when I, my sure, sismers reserved through your sacrifice, my steadfast hope, that won't be shaken, my soul will wake, my soul, if that don't light your fire, your wood's wet.

If you like, see, I grew up singing hymns, and so that just lights my fire. If you like the old hymns, we are going to have a hymn sing on March 20th. Mark your calendars. It's going to be amazing. In the evening, we'll have a hymn sing.

In fact, we're going to have some of the young people leading three of the hymns. They've been working hard and it's going to be awesome. So mark your calendar for that. Let's go before the Lord in prayer.

Father, we will cling to the old rugged cross, for there we see love, a perfect display of love, that you would bleed and die for us, not because we deserved anything, but your wrath, you gave your one and only son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

That is love, for God so loved the world. Thank you for showing us what love is, and now we pray as we open your word that you would teach us from that how we ought to live. In Jesus' name, amen. What the world needs now is love, sweet love.

But what is love?

What is love?

The world doesn't understand what love is. First John 4 .10 tells us the answer. This is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. You want to know what love is?

Look at Jesus Christ. Look at the cross. There is the perfect picture of love, the person of Christ. Now he did the work for us because he so loved us. He himself was born to the Virgin Mary and lived a perfect life.

He worked hard with his hands. Did you know he was a carpenter? Here is a man that worked with his hands, and then his hands at the end of his life accomplished the work that none of us could do. His hands were nailed to the wood of the cross.

That carpenter became the sacrifice. And in this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation means he bore the wrath of God that was directed toward us in his body on the tree.

He did the work for us. That is love. He is the provider. He provided our salvation. We contributed nothing. He was the giver, not the taker. He is the perfect example to us of what love is. Our culture has lost sight of it.

70 of millennials, according to a YouGov poll, say that they would be somewhat or extremely likely to vote for a socialist. They assume that love would mean giving money and what is the needs of life, whether it be a house or food or healthcare or free college, whatever it would be, that the government would provide these things, and they say this is love.

This is love, says the world. Now, Harvard University is at the vanguard of the socialist movement, and I set out to understand how they even think about the world in which we all share. So Harvard has never posted one of their classes online for free on YouTube until 2012.

They posted one from Michael Sandel, a longtime professor, called Justice. It was a 12-part series, and it's available for free on YouTube. Justice, what's the right thing to do? And it's a very interesting study to watch because it is grasping for some ground to morality.

How do we know what's right? So he explores Jeremy Bentham's utilitarianism and Kant and a Harvard professor named John Rawls and a number of other philosophers not having the Bible as a basis for what is right, they're searching in philosophy for a theory of justice, and they come up wanting.

Because without God having told us what is right, really it's only a matter of personal opinion, what feels right or what is right in one's own eyes. Judges 21, 25 says everybody did what was right in their own eyes.

One of the things that Michael Sandel points out is that Bill Gates is now worth 130 billion dollars. 130 billion dollars. Now let's break that down into time, how much income he is able to generate. Michael Sandel says he generates $4 ,630, not a day, not a minute, but per second, $4 ,600 per second.

Which means that if Bill Gates saw a $100 bill laying on the sidewalk, it would cost him more money in his time to bend down and pick it up than to just keep on walking. That's how much wealth he has.

And so a socialist would look at the world and say, well, what's the right thing to do? He has so much, others have so little. The right thing to do, according to them, would be to just confiscate say half of it and give that to the poor.

Enter the world of socialism. And they say that this means that love wins. Love, according to this, their hermeneutic, is the filter by which we determine right and wrong. There is a cathedral in New York City called the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

It's a massive structure and it's all ornate and it's filled with idols, by the way. But it claims to be a Christian church. Jeremy Chong, who writes for the Wheaton Record, Christian man, grew up Christian in the city, which is a very hard thing to do, to grow up Christian in the city of New York.

He says he lived a block away from the Cathedral of St. John in New York City. Once, my parents walked by the church and saw a society of witches holding a service in one of their sanctuaries. Another time, we saw a Buddhist idol in the main sanctuary.

The church, which serves as the seat of the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, posted something more recently, which led me to reflect on its spiritual implications. It was a massive red sign with three words, love overrules.

And so, love, according to the world, is to overrule everything else and give people what they want. A society of witches wants to use the church, so love means let the witches use your church. The Buddhists want to worship their idols in the church, and so the Diocese of New York allows the Buddhists to worship Buddha in the church.

Love wins, says the world. What has the church lost that results in this kind of rudderless Christianity? The answer is, see that catch? I didn't even drop it. The answer is, the church has lost the law of God.

We think we understand love, but you cannot have love without the law of God. The Reformers taught that there was a three-fold purpose to the law of God. Now, we say the law of God, we're referring to the Old Testament, to the Torah, most specifically to the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments that were given to Moses in Exodus chapter 20, on two slabs of stone.

The morality of right and wrong. What was the purpose of the law? Now, the Reformers said there is a three-fold purpose to the law. Let's go over those, because we've lost two of them. Number one, the law exists to show people their need of the Savior.

That's the primary purpose, if you take from Galatians 2 .24, the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. James 1 .23, the law is a mirror. Romans 3 .20, the law, by the law, is the knowledge of sin.

So this purpose of the law refers to showing people, like a mirror, how sinful we are. When the law says, thou shalt not murder, and I have anger in my heart, the law, like a mirror, shows me that I'm a murderer at heart.

And so, revealing my wickedness, I know that I need a Savior. That's the purpose of the law, to show me my need for a Savior. The law is good, and it shows me that I'm not. That's the first purpose of the law, amen?

But there are other purposes to God's law, which have been completely thrown out by the culture, and churches themselves have thrown these purposes out. The law was also given to be a restraint on evil in society.

Romans 13 .4 says that the government does not bear the sword in vain, but he is an avenger of God's righteousness against evil. Well, how do you know what's evil? Is the murdering of babies in the womb evil?

It is the role of government to restrain that kind of evil. But we've jettisoned God's law in favor of subjective moral opinion. A third use of the law is to direct the believer in his behavior. To direct Christians in how we behave.

It's not that when we got the New Testament, the Old Testament ought to be just tabled, put on a shelf, or maybe dusted off for some ancient history. No, the Old Testament is just as much the Word of God as the New Testament.

When King David wrote Psalm 119, to what scripture was he referring? King David was a thousand years before the New Testament was written. And yet, if you read Psalm 119 over and over again, every verse of the 176 verses talks about David's love for the law.

He loved the law. It is to direct and guide us as Christians, and we are to love it as David did. So here's what we're going to do, which a lot of Christians would never even contemplate doing in a church service.

They'd rather have witches than open the law of God. How about we open to the book of Leviticus? Isn't that a bold idea for a church? Let's start today in the book of Leviticus chapter 19. Obviously, I know that you guys love God's law the way David did.

So let's read today just a few verses, and then I'll make a brief comment before we get into 1 Thessalonians 4. Just four verses there today. Leviticus 19, verses 9 to 18. This is the law of God. It shows us how sinful we are.

It restrains evil in society, but it also teaches us morality, ethics, Christian ethics, and we learn from this law.

So let's read it.

Leviticus 19, 9 through 18. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to the edge. Neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest, and you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard.

You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal. You shall not deal falsely. You shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of your God.

I am the Lord.

You shall not oppress your neighbor to rob him or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear.

Your God.

I am the Lord. You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor.

I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord.

Amen.

Much could be said, and another time I will exposit this passage when we're going through it. Today I'll make only brief comments on it. Notice the last verse. Jesus quoted this verse when asked what is the most important thing in the entire Old Testament.

So you guys ready to hear it? He was asked by some lawyer who sought to trip him up, well, what's the most important? Come in. And he first of all quoted from Deuteronomy 6, 4, and 5, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And then Jesus said, and the second is like the first, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now in that, did Jesus put those two verses over the 10 commandments as more important than the 10 commandments of Exodus 20?

Did he pick these over them?

No.

No, he summarized the 10 commandments in these two verses. So the law of God, the 10 commandments, the Decalogue was given to Moses by God on the mountain on two sheets of stone. It's written in stone, lest anybody think they can break it and not hurt themselves.

The first four are vertical. They relate to God, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You don't make idols, you don't take his name in vain. You worship him as your one and only true God.

But the second table of the law in the Decalogue is horizontal. It's how you love others. So it's summarized in love your neighbor as yourself. And the commands thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not lie or to bear false witness.

These are commands of how to practice neighbor love, how you love one another. Now two of those commands are against theft. In the Decalogue, as we see in Leviticus 19, you shall not rob, you shall not steal.

These commands ensure the protection of private property. However rich Bill Gates is, no one has the right to take his wealth and redistribute it to somebody else. Even if he's making $4 ,000 a second, he ought to be charitable with what he has, but that's his private possession, his property.

In fact, let me take this a step farther than the Eighth Commandment. The Tenth Commandment says you're not even allowed to think about doing that. Thou shalt not covet what belongs to your neighbor. You cannot covet the private property of another person.

It's in the Decalogue, Tenth Commandment. And summarized in neighbor love. Now from Leviticus 19, verse 11 says you shall not steal. There goes socialism. Because government was created by God to enforce the law, punish wrongdoing, send criminals to jail.

But it is not a paternalistic function given by God to take from some and redistribute as if they're the parent in society. That would be stealing. Government can only take money by the edge of the sword.

If you don't pay your taxes, the sword of government backs up that demand. You're going to jail. So it's a confiscatory. It is a taking of wealth in order to redistribute. So the Decalogue, and here Leviticus 19, verse 11, outlaws socialism outright.

Now it does teach people to be generous. So far in America, I believe it's the case that about 1 of the population are farmers. Only about 1%. So does the law in Leviticus 19, 9 and 10, the harvesting of your land, you're not to reap right up to the edge, we are not Old Testament, theocratic Israel.

We're applying the general moral equity of this passage. Does this mean that farmers need to take care of the food needs of people who are poor?

No.

It means that all Christians are to work so hard that we have extra to help and generously give as the Lord leads us to do. We're not to reap right up to the edge of our field. If you make $100 ,000 a year, you ought not spend $100 ,000 a year, but have something set aside to help the poor.

When there's a need in your family, in your church, or some way that you can help a poor person, it is a voluntary giving from the excess of what you have produced. You're not to favor the poor. Did you know that?

The preferential option for the poor, Gustavo Gutierrez of liberation theology and social justice says you're to have a preferential option for the poor. The Bible outlaws that. Did you see it in verse 15?

You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great. And then it says you shall not hate your brother in verse 17. What does it say you ought to do? You should be looking at Leviticus 19. Leviticus 19 verse 17, you are to reason frankly with your brother.

You are to tell him the truth. This is love, to tell someone the truth. To decry socialism is telling the truth about what destroys society. Where socialism was tried in Russia and Mao Zedong's China and North Korea, Pol Pot, all of those who have tried socialism, Venezuela, Cuba, wherever it's been tried, it's resulted in terrible human suffering.

So reason frankly with people regarding economics. It's not unloving to say such things. It's not unloving to tell the witches to go away. We'll pray for you, but you can't come here. It's not unloving, you're reasoning frankly.

In fact, that is very much within the domain of verse 18. Not to take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. So we are to reason.

We're to tell the truth. Truth and love are not enemies, but friends. We are to speak the truth in love, which brings us now to the four verses that we study for today. Leviticus 19 was the introductory background, but today we're in 1 Thessalonians 4, 9 -12.

The reason I began this presentation, this sermon, in the book of Leviticus with reference to private property, is because these four verses in Thessalonians help to establish the foundation of Christian work ethic, morality with regard to money, individualism, independence.

It informs the believer and it instructs the world the righteousness of independence. And this is what our Western culture is losing. As the foundations of Western society, which were built on the rock of Christ Jesus, his word instructing us, as those foundations crumble, this is what we're losing.

And so we assert it firmly. We reason frankly from 1 Thessalonians 4, 9 -12.

Let's read it.

Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you. For you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia.

But we urge you brothers to do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your own hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

This is God's word. This is God's Christian ethic for all time. And it accords with everything that was said in the book of Leviticus. First, notice that what we see in verses 9 and 10 is a brotherly love.

It refers to how Christians love Christians. The care of believers for one another. It's not referring to a general love in the world. How do I know that? Look at verse 9. Now concerning brotherly love, some of you would guess what that word is in the Greek.

Philadelphias, the city of brotherly love. Not so much living up to their name recently, are they? But Philadelphia is made up of the roots phileo, love, and adelphoi, brother. It is the love of the brother specifically, meaning other Christians.

Notice that the word brother is repeated again in verse 10. We urge you, brothers, doing to all the brothers. It is repeated because the idea here is how Christians are to love one another in the household of the faith.

And to underscore the point again, look at the end of verse 12. We do this so that you may walk properly before outsiders. So the concept here is that brotherly love is in the church. And outsiders will know that we are Christians by our love.

There's something different about how Christians love one another. Something that the world can never emulate and the world doesn't understand. And when Christians are filled with the Spirit, the moment you're born again, the love of God is given into your heart.

It's poured into your heart. You will have a natural affection for other Christians. Because the shepherd laid down his life for the sheep. And so sheep will have an affinity for other sheep, not for goats.

There will be a special kind of love. As Christ has a special love for his bride, the church, so members of the church are members one of another, 1 Corinthians 12. A special love begins the moment you're saved.

If you've prayed the sinner's prayer, but you've never loved other Christians, you don't feel the need to gather with Christians to worship our Lord on a Sunday morning. There's no special affection in your heart, no Philadelphia, no brotherly love.