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Well, we come to that time in the service where we come before the Word of God and may God be pleased to have some power in the pulpit and some power in these pews or chairs so that not only could we preach but also listen to the glory of God.
I'd ask you please to turn to 1 Thessalonians, the book that we've been in the past couple of weeks, this being the third installment on verse 3. I'd like to finish verse 3 in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.
This is the second letter of all of Paul's writings. Again, this is the church that was in northeastern Greece that was established during the Apostle Paul's second missionary journey, read about in Acts chapter 17.
And the apostle had a short visit here with his company that was with him. But it was very effective in that when they preached the gospel, many were saved. God moved. They were saved and a church was established here.
And in this church, there are things that the Apostle Paul had found out about. And it says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and in verse 2, Paul says, We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering you without ceasing, your work of faith, your labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.
You remember in verse 2 there, he spoke of the manner of his thanksgiving. The Apostle Paul is praying. And as he's praying, he's remembering, he's remembering that. But when he's praying, he's thanking God for these dear saints.
And then in verse 3, we see the occasions for his thanksgiving. We see the reasons why the Apostle Paul is thankful. And I'm going to ask the same question this week that I began with last week. So we have the right perspective as we look at verse 3.
What makes a successful church? Ultimately, of course, only God can enable a group of believers to do any spiritual good. And that would lend to the success of any church. But remember, what we're looking at here is the responsibility of the members of a church.
What you and I ought to be doing as believers, and I'm speaking practically from that human responsibility, and as members of a church, I believe that in verse 3, the Apostle Paul is identifying what makes, what is that which ought to be visible and evident in the life of a believer.
And here we find that in the believer's life and the believers make up that local body, we find that a commendable church is one where the brothers and sisters in Christ work, love, work and labor, it says here, the first two that we covered.
And this week, those they are ones who endure. So BBC should be known for a place where you as a Christian work. And labor and endure, and first of all, the very first message, Paul was grateful to the Lord that they had a faith that worked and then they had a labor that loved and that work was, if you remember, the actual deeds, the things that they did unto the Lord and for others and their labor was the effort that was expended.
The work is the is the action being the key, doing something to benefit others, showing your faith by your works, whereas the labor was the effort. And you remember that was something that's toilsome that involves fatigue and spiritual sweat.
I put that on there last week and an effort that goes beyond the ordinary into the extraordinary where whereas the expositors commentary put it this way, very succinctly, very good. So great is its concern for the object that love does not stop with the ordinary effort, but goes the second mile and even goes beyond for the sake of another.
And you remember the needle last week, the gauge as far as our love, if it's if it's non-existent or if it's ordinary and we hopefully by the grace of God, we'll have it to be extraordinary so that we demonstrate that we truly do love other people.
So a faith that works, a labor that loves. And I've been saying all along that there is a there are three and there is a third spiritual quality that if it was present in your life, would not only be recognized and remembered by God or commendable unto God, but no doubt would cause your church leaders to give thanks for you, just like the Apostle Paul did for those folks in Thessalonica when he when he remembered them, when he thought of them.
And this week we're going to look at the third reason why Paul gives thanks for these dear saints. And it was because they had, as it says there, a hope that endures or a patience or a steadfastness, maybe in your in your translation of the Bible, a steadfastness of hope, a patience of hope, a hope that endures.
And we need to, first of all, understand a basic principle. You must be a believer or a follower of Jesus Christ in order to possess true biblical hope, to be able to have a hope. I mean, that that just makes sense.
Hope is a basic characteristic of those who believe in God. Believers are people who have hope in God. And I believe Paul is saying that. And if we I could tell you the end of the message now, for those of you that might check out near the end because it's just too much or it goes it goes a bit too long for you.
But I believe Paul is saying that if we have this type of hope. A steadfast hope, a hope that is so far into the world which we live in, which the world in which we live in is hopeless, that that hope that we receive from God will enable us to persevere.
It will strengthen us in dark and gloomy times. Our hope in God allows us to keep on keeping on. And when I say hope, it's not just enough to be waiting for Jesus. I'm hoping for Jesus to come. And you have this kind of passive, non-active, this stoic, this just kind of sit back hope where it does not have an impact on your life.
The hope that this church had had an impact upon their life and produce some fruit in their life, as we're going to see. A hope that is just sitting back as a useless hope because it does not produce any benefit in the Christian's life.
And let me try to illustrate. Here is a believer not living the victorious Christian life, who's thinking just passively. Hope is not making an impact upon them. They would say something like this. Oh, yeah, I can't wait for Jesus to come back.
My life is miserable. And I hate those T-shirts with all those little dogs and in houses and cars and coffee cups on them because my life isn't good. I'm not doing much of anything. I'm not going anywhere.
It doesn't make sense for me to be active because the whole world is going to get burned up anyways. Oh, me, I'm just waiting to hear the trumpet sound. Brethren, that's not victorious Christian living.
That's not what the Apostle Paul is talking about here. That's not the type of hope that's commendable to God or to man. So it's not enough just to have a quiet resignation or or or where we just passively kind of endure things that come our way and there's no power and there's nothing commendable there.
We're going to see that it's more than that. I believe Heber in his commentary aptly describes what we must possess in his words that regard the proper biblical steadfastness or the biblical endurance that that Paul is speaking of here with these words.
Listen to what he said in his commentary. It is that combination and get these two words of heroic endurance. It's a combination of heroic endurance and brave constancy that faces the various obstacles, trials and persecutions that may befall the believer in his conflict with the inward and outward world.
The persecution heaped upon the Thessalonian believers gave ample opportunity for the exercise of this steadfast endurance that was inspired by their hope, the hope of the gospel that had brought was brought to them.
This inspiring hope is a central feature of the Christian life. That's the message this morning. This hope is a central feature of the Christian life. It stands in striking contrast to their former hopelessness as pagans.
And how true that is. Look back before you were saved. Look what you were in is if you were in religion and tell me how much hope that you had there. Tell me the power that it gave you. Tell me. Tell me how it got you through your afflictions and and persecutions and trials.
Tell me when you went to those to those funerals of a religious funeral and everybody's asking, well, nobody's really saying where is this person because they don't know. There were no answers when it came to how it is that someone must be saved.
And how can you know that you're going to heaven? And Hebert says that the hope that the Thessalonian church had was in vast contrast to when they were idols, when they were idolaters and pagan worshippers, they were hopeless.
And we we also were he finishes by saying it is not a mere personal aspiration or yearning for something to come. It is something certain because it is based on what God has said he will yet do. And I would add to that, that was the end quote, I would add to that just like our faith is to be seen in active obedience or action and our love is to be shown in in costly, laborious spiritual efforts.
Our hope should also show itself with active, living, visible tenacity, a heroic endurance, as Hebert said, and a brave constancy. And that means to stick with it. We will be people who stick with it like Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress.
Hope causes us to keep our eyes upon Jesus. It causes us to look at him, the author and finisher of our faith, keeping on the Pilgrim pathway, never giving up in spite of the most horrible obstacles we encounter.
That's what God given hope does. And in commenting also on these verses, Albert Barnes spoke of the fruit that is born in the life of a believer who's been graced with the gift of hope in that it results in this patience in your trials, showing that you have such a hope of future blessedness as to sustain you in afflictions.
It is it was hope the hope of heaven through the Lord Jesus that gave the Thessalonians patience. There are some other places in the New Testament that we could look at. We don't have to turn there, but where it'll speak of hope being a favorable or confident expectation.
It has to do with the unseen and what is what is coming in the future. And the most frequently used word in the New Testament for hope has the meaning of an anticipated expectation. And in most cases, it's an expectation of something that we as believers have never seen.
Yet we trust God to bring to reality one day. You remember verses like this in Titus two, verse 13. It says that that believers are those who are looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ.
Now, we haven't experienced that. We as believers, I mean, sometimes I hate to ask the question, is anybody here ever seen Jesus face to face? You wonder when somebody is going to write. Oh, yeah, me.
And then what do you how do you deal with that? But but for those that for those that have that are in this room that have been saved by the grace of God, knowing your Bibles and following the word of God, we have not seen Christ.
Maybe by an eye of faith, we have seen who he is in his person and work in the scripture. But with this physical eye, we have not seen him. We haven't experienced that yet, but we are walking by faith, not by sight.
And we possess a hope beyond this world, a hope in Christ so much that it does not matter what anyone else says. It does not matter how terrible our circumstances deteriorate. It doesn't matter how vicious the attacks may come from within with our struggles against sin or from without attacks from Satan or nonbelievers.
It doesn't even matter if the earth melts below our feet. Our hope is in the Lord and he will completely and fully finish the work of his salvation, which he's promised you and me. You can count on that.
You can hope in that. And that hope is powerful in the believer's life to enable them to persevere in the faith. Now, I read Second Corinthians chapter four beforehand because I just I love the passage of scripture there that speaks about the hope that we have in the Lord.
And if you'd like to turn there, you may you can stay right there in First Thessalonians. But I would just like to make a couple of comments about this section here. Every time it seems like you go with the Apostle Paul, where there's a great encouragement needed for the believers that he's writing to, he gets into the unseen world and he gets into things and he starts speaking about the hope.
And, of course, hope is our hope is in things that are unseen, as I talked about. And it's things that have not occurred yet in our lives. But we believe God to bring them to pass. And we hope in those future things.
Faith is something that we're experiencing today and we're believing God. It is the substance of things hope for the evidence of things not seen. Faith is today. It's now it's reality. The hope that we have is future things.
And Paul puts these things before people so that they can be encouraged in the present things that they're going through when they think about the things in the future that they have not seen and have not taken place.
They hope in those things and that hope that they have supports them and helps them presently to go through the things that they that they are experiencing. Does that make sense? Looking to the future, the hope helps them to get through the things in the present.
And here in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, you remember he said that they were persecuted but not forsaken, this ministry that he has suffering for Christ, cast down but not destroyed, bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
But but one of the one of the encouraging things that that he says here near the end of the chapter, he speaks and he kind of lumps up all of the difficult things that we go through in verse 17. And he says that he describes it this way.
He says, for our light affliction. Our light affliction, which is only for a moment. Well, Paul, you don't understand. I've been living as a believer for years. I've been living as a believer for decades and it isn't light.
It's been difficult. It has been burdensome. It has been tears. It has been horrible at times. The persecution, the the the labeling that has come my way, the mocking that I've experienced, the the the casting down the even of the parts of of life, which has been so so difficult, even just in the ministry.
Paul, you don't understand. It's not a light affliction, but Paul is trying to get them to think properly. And what he's saying is that the light affliction that we're experiencing is just for a moment.
It says he says works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And what Paul is saying here is that if we took a scale and if we could put all of the sufferings and the difficulties and the afflictions and the persecutions and the trials that we go through on one side, what he's saying is what awaits us on the other side.
All the things that we're hoping in, those those eternal things, those things that we cannot see exceedingly outweigh those things which we now think are very troublesome and a burden to us. He's getting them to think properly.
He and we should we should place more weight. Upon the things that God puts more weight on, and in the scripture, Paul tries to get them to think this way, that that it is it is a light affliction as compared to that which God is promised to us and that which we are hoping in.
And in that. In in this section here. We need to ask ourselves, do we take and think properly and do a spiritual inventory when we evaluate what's going on in our lives, the adversity and the temptations and the tough times?
Let me let me quote this this verse from Romans eight. Maybe this will just kind of pull that all together. In Romans eight, 18, Paul said, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
So make sense. You understand what I'm saying there as far as this first, the that which we're going through, all the sufferings of this present time that we're going through are not worthy to be compared.
They can't be they can't be compared to what God has in store for us. And more about that as we go on. But you notice that when the apostle Paul does this and you read the different churches, read First Corinthians chapter 15, read Romans chapter eight, reading the epistles and what the apostle Paul does when he constantly reminds these churches of that which they're that which is before them, that which is coming to encourage them, the resurrection of their bodies.
Christ raised was raised up. We also will be raised up an encouragement to them, the coming of the Lord Jesus. And in First Thessalonians chapter four, even where we look in there, we see of the rapture of the church, we get the we get great insight as far as Paul's concern for those believers.
And maybe we'll we'll look at that a little bit in a little while. But if you'll notice. What is it that is going to help us, is it going to be pipe dreams? Is it going to be something that some guys got some kiosk down at the mall?
Is that what is going to bring it home for us and help us? I know I know folks who. Constantly think that if they can go in to that corner store and they can buy that little piece of paper that comes off the rolls behind the counter, that that is going to be their ticket, that is going to be the thing, if they just win, that is going to change their life.
Completely, and of course, that will leave them exactly where they are, as Pastor Steve said in Sunday school, that'll leave them Christless, graceless and hopeless. Our hope is to be in the Lord. Well, let's move let's move on.
What's important is it's the scripture. Which we hear of truth and the doctrines, the teachings of the of the Lord Jesus himself and of the apostles that are our place that we find these truths so that we can have hope anything other than the word of God is just shifting sand and will not provide assurance.
But as you read your Bible, as you discover the promises from God to his beloved children, you can anchor your soul in them and come to the place where you again, by faith and not by sight, your hope increases.
And that hope bears the fruit of patience and endurance and a steadfast. And I made up this word stick to it of this throughout your life and through all the trying times that you will encounter before we reach heaven's shore.
Even the Bible is clear and tells us that hope comes through the scriptures. Romans 15, four for whatever was written in earlier times was written for your instruction so that through perseverance and encouragement of the scriptures.
We might have hope doing here today. We live in a godless, Christless and graceless and hopeless world. And the reason there is no hope in the world is because the word of God is not the source of wisdom or practical living.
God and his Bible are forsaken today as he and it has been in the past. And the fruit of that type of that perspective is utter despair. And a world full of people that have such a puny and diminished anticipation of anything worthwhile, remember, hope is an anticipation, it's an expectation of the future and a person who lives without God, a person who lives not following Christ, a person who is not saved.
Hopeless souls expect to live 70, 80, 90 years. They go to work and they come home. They raise the children, they go to bed at night, they get up and they eat, they sleep, they amuse themselves and then they expect to die.
And that's the extent of their existence. And I say, no, we were created by God for much more than that. Listen, if you are hopeless today, it is because you just flat don't believe what the Bible says.
If you are hopeless, it is because you are Christless, and if you are Christless, you've got emptiness and despair in your life and you cannot say with confidence that you know where you're going, where you die, you are hoping everything will turn out, but you have nothing to base that hope upon.
Religion tells you to be a good person. But you aren't ever told how good you have to be in order to make it to heaven and religion tells you that because it is not based completely upon the word of God.
And as lovingly as I can say it, if you are lost here this morning, if you are without Jesus Christ, here's what the Bible tells you. You are a sinner who has grieved and offended God with your thoughts, words and sinful actions.
For the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God punishes sin, period. No glossing it over. God will not sweep your sin under the carpet of forgiveness without dealing with it.
It must be dealt with. He has seen every breach of his law. You've committed and heard every lie, every hateful and spiteful sentence and recorded every thought that has ever gone through your head. One day you will face his judgment.
You will receive the just sentence for your crimes against heaven. The verdict of in God's courtroom is given and you are found guilty before God eternally guilty and your sentence will be an eternal hell where you will be separated from God.
But the good news is the great news is that as a sinner you need a savior and you cannot save yourself and it won't matter how much religious effort you put forth. You cannot reach perfection. You need someone to deliver you from your horrible plight.
And Jesus Christ is the only savior of sinners. Sent by the father, lived the perfect life, died an undeserved death upon the on the cross, undeserved because he is a sinless son of God. But in love he took our sins upon himself, suffered in our place.
And there's only one thing that you can do and that's beg for mercy. Beg for God to save you. You must look to Christ in order to be saved because you are headed for God's wrath and the penalty of your sins is an eternal torment.
Jesus is the only way to God and the only means of forgiveness. And the Bible says that if you turn from your sins and you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ to believe means you trust in you believe he died for you.
You cling to him and him only, not your works, not your religion, not anything you can do, but Jesus Christ alone. You cling to him. You believe he died for you and was buried and rose again for you. If you do that, you'll be forgiven.
You'll be given eternal life because Jesus said, truly, truly, I say unto you, he that believeth upon me have everlasting life. You have it right now. You become a child of God and just like all the others in this room who have been saved, you will then possess a new found hope in Christ alone.
You'll be in the place where you'll be able to understand and practically apply the message that I'm preaching today. But first you must come to Christ. In order to receive that hope that these Thessalonian believers had that Paul recognized, you must also realize that if you claim to have hope, that hope must be a biblical hope.
And by that, I mean your hope must be properly rooted or properly grounded. And if we go back to first Thessalonians chapter one, we're going to see this. The testimony of the hope that Paul had heard about from this church was in the life was grounded someplace.
And Paul says, you know, I remembered your work of faith and your labor of love and your patience of hope. And then he began right after that to pen some words that would show where their hope was founded or what their hope was rooted in.
I'm going to age myself or date myself. But I remember as a young believer, there used to be a song. Someone took the Christian song, Christ the Solid Rock. My hope is built on nothing less. Well, the song back then, a fun, comical singing of that song to prove the futility of not trusting in Christ was my hope is built in nothing less than Schofield's Notes and Moody Press.
I don't know if you've ever heard that. And we could put anything else in that blank there. If your hope is anywhere else, it's unfounded. It's there's nothing to stand upon there. And Paul says here that their patience of hope or their hope endured.
And where was their hope in or who was their hope in? It wasn't themselves. It wasn't the apostle Paul. It wasn't in their efforts. It wasn't in the things that they could tangibly or physically hold in their hand.
Their hope was in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is very clear. Your hope must be rooted in him just like in the hymn writers are right. My hope is my hope is in the Lord. Who gave himself for me and the other one I just quoted will quote it properly this time.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness to Paul. Jesus was everything. His all in all, his savior, his God. The lover of his soul, the one who bestowed grace upon him, his powerful deliverer, his mighty redeemer, his ever present help in time of trouble, his guide, his king and on as we read what the apostle Paul writes, all of these attributes and aspects of the person and work of Jesus delighted Paul.
But there was one aspect that really thrilled his soul and really thrilled the soul of those in Thessalonica, and it was one place where they focused when it came when it came to their hope. There was something that brought them comfort in troubling times and something that enabled them to carry on.
And it was because of the hope that they had in the Lord Jesus Christ, brother, a sister in Christ. Don't look elsewhere. It's in Christ, in Christ alone, these believers had an expectation that Jesus would do as he had promised, even from his teachings.
You remember those blessed words in John chapter 14, where the disciples at the last supper with the Lord are grieving there, they're they're hearing things about Jesus saying that he's going there's things that are happening at the table.
You remember, and it's it's it's a gloomy time. And the Lord Jesus begins in John, chapter 14, and he says, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me and my father's house are many mansions.
If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there, you will be also.
Words of comfort, words of hope for them, words, I mean, Jesus will return to take his children home. Please turn with me. First Thessalonians chapter four. Just look in chapter four, if you would, with me, this church no doubt had some issues or had some problems with some error, maybe some false teaching about about what had taken place when it comes to eschatological things, the last last things, last times, final things, the return of Christ.
Some of the believers had died already in this in this group. And and what happens to them? I mean, we're alive. What if Jesus comes? What happens to them? And then what happens to us? And Paul begins to to speak to them.
He wants to help them. He wants to comfort them. So what does he do? He says, go to a Steve Lawson conference, right? That's the place to go. Something present, you know, go down to the go down to the CBD bookstall that will really give you a hope for the future to give you the answer to those questions.
You may find them there, but that's not what the apostle Paul does. What he does is he points them towards the future hope that they can be rooted and grounded in to be able to live through the present time that they're in to help them through their affliction and to answer their questions.
And they've got these concerns about other believers who've died. And Paul said, I don't want you to be ignorant. I don't want you to be uninformed. Verse 13, brethren, concerning those who are asleep or in the New Testament, that means those who have died, that you do not sorrow.
Notice this phrase, even as others who have no hope. I mean, that is a non-believe believers religious funeral, that's where you go. If you want to see that phrase right there, just just come to life.
People souring because people have died and there's no hope. But Paul saying that's not what it's all about when it comes to Christ, because he's promised something and something's going to take place.
And Paul is delivering to them the word, the instruction that he has received. He said, for if we believe, verse 14, that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep are those who are dead in Jesus.
Will God bring with him? For this, we say unto you, verse 15, by the word of the Lord, by the authority of God. This, we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, those of you that are alive when Jesus comes, if you are alive physically, when Jesus comes to snatch away, to to take up, to rapture the church, we who are alive and remain into the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Now, that gives you comfort if you're if you're not if you're alive and there are those that have died before you in the faith, it gives great comfort to know that God's word says that they will be resurrected.
And then we which are alive and remain, it says here, notice as we read on, it says for the Lord himself shall descend, verse 16, from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise.
Then we which are alive and remain, verse 17, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. And then Paul finishes the last verse of that chapter.
And he goes, oh, right. No big deal, you know, that that might be good, I I'd recommend, you know, you get the bestseller list off the Internet. That'll that'll really give you more than what I just said.
No, no, no, no. What he says here is these believers are hurting. They're persecuted. They're they're they're a young church and they've got all kinds of questions. And the apostle Paul says this by the authority of the word of God, Jesus is coming again.
And then he says with with these words, he says, do something. Verse 18. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. My I think one of the issues today is is that we have believers who say they believe.
They say they know what the scriptures say and this you've read this text before, but you have never really come to the place where you wholeheartedly with a great expectation, not only just a longing for Jesus to come, but you believe this is as sure as the air that you're breathing right now.
That Jesus said he was coming. To receive us unto himself and the apostle Paul's repeating and reiterating that doctrine, that truth that this church needed so that they could get through the tough times that they were in and they believed that they had an expectation, they could taste it as is as if it was theirs to possess right now.
Yes, by faith, not by sight, but it was such a they had a hope in what what was promised to them that it brought them it brought them great relief of the sorrow or maybe it brought them comfort just to be able to answer the question, what happened to all those dear believers that have died before us?
Oh, believe believers here this morning, if you possess this type of hope, it will enable you to endure suffering and remain patient under trials and be consistently steadfast no matter what comes your way.
Hope in Christ is essential in order for you to live a commendable life unto God by an outward demonstration of being one who perseveres and endures until the end. MacArthur put it this way in speaking of this verse, hope transcends mere human wishful anticipation and rest confidently in the consummation of redemption that scripture says will certainly occur when Christ returns.
Such hope will inevitably cause believers to triumph over their struggles of life. Did you get that triumph over their struggles in life? We sing of victory in Jesus, right? We sing that not not not. Oh, vexation in Jesus or or oh, oh, doom and gloom in Jesus, no victory in Jesus.
And this hope causes us not to be trampled over by our struggles, but by the grace of God and by the strength of God and by the authority of what God has taught us, it causes us to triumph over our struggles.
And that's where I'm trying to get at this morning for us to have such a hope in Christ and all that he has promised to us, that it helps us as we're not going to our prayer isn't, you know, the old James Bond as we're going through life.
Please, Lord, press the injection button so I can be out of here in this life. No, we we abide under. We constantly remain. We stay steadfast. But the hope that we have of future things helps us and enables us and helps us to think properly and be enabled to be able to triumph over our struggles.
When your world is rocked by death. A sudden loss. An attack upon your character, a financial crisis, a broken relationship, a lost job, receiving painfully bad news, a severe physical illness or need for a major surgery.
When you find out someone has abandoned the faith and is leaving the church again, someone else is doing that. Do you cave in under the pressure? Do you give up? Do you let it trample over you? You let the struggles trample over you.
Do you blame God? Do you think about turntailing and running away from Christianity? Remember early on in our. In our marriage, Deb and I, and in our Christian life, God had saved us about 1976. And we were so excited, married in 1975, the Lord had been calling us unto himself, drawing us, saving us, making it sure that that we were, we were in great need of a savior.
And he was a great savior and saved us both, forgave us of our sins. And we began to follow Christ. 1976. Desiring to have children. 1979. Deb is with child and I'm at work one day, about five and a half months into the pregnancy.
And I get a call at work. I was in the army at that time. Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, to go up to the main campus of the hospital. There's something wrong with your wife. It looks like this baby is coming too quickly.
Five and a half months in. Get up there. They tell me to dress up, to put the garb on so that I could go in and be with Deb. On the way there, all I can think of is the message that our pastor preached the week before.
And God makes no mistakes. Everything is in his time. I don't remember all of what he had said during that message, but I do remember this phrase through the whole time that I'm driving up there. God has never given us a reason to quit.
Never quit. Never jettison the faith. Never abandon the faith. God knows what he's doing. He never makes a mistake. And of course, everything flooded me as far as the sovereignty of God and God ruling and reigning over everything.
And in God's timing and in God's wisdom, that baby was taken home. Her name was that was our first Naomi. She was named buried. I mean, she lived for 20 minutes, a very difficult time. But I remember praying on my knees as I'm changing before going into that room, knowing that it's the grace of God that could cause me to do so.
Lord, you do whatever you want to do. I trust you. I trust you with my life. I trust you with my wife. I trust you with this baby. And and God was pleased to do that. And I know that some of you have gone through difficult times to like that, but you know that you have a hope, a hope in the Lord, a hope in God that that causes you to remain steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
You'll be able to stand fast if your hope is not in yourself. It is not in others. It is not in the empty amusements of this world. It is not in man centered religion or in material possessions, because all of those things can be taken from you in a moment.
The Thessalonians hope was firm and solid and steadfast and unshakable. It was a strong confidence because it was, as it says in verse three, at the very end of that verse, near the end, their hope was in our Lord Jesus Christ.
They knew that they were God's possession, loved by their heavenly father, saved by God's grace, the elect of God and their hope persevered, their hope endured, their hope did not quit. They triumphed over their struggles and remain steadfast.
What is this word steadfast or patience, this patience of hope, the steadfastness of hope, this endurance? What does this mean in 3B? Well, it's from a Greek word that conveys the idea, as we've already said, endurance and perseverance.
It denotes the condition of staying. Abiding, as again, I said, not not when the when the going gets rough, some some folks get going. No, when the when the pressure and the struggle and the persecution of the trial comes, there is a staying ability in that lives by the grace of God.
But it's because of the hope that we have in unseen things, the things that God has promised. And we stay even under the pressure. I don't know if you've ever had like had something to wear. Oh, I'll give you an example.
We have an inflatable mattress at our house and the only in the only way that I know to get the air out of that thing when it's all said and done, I mean, if I just pull the plug out, it doesn't all come out of there.
What happens is, is I keep folding it up and I keep laying on it and putting some pressure on it. And then the air expands and it goes. What happens in the lives of some folks is that when things get tough for them, they feel like the only avenue, the only thing that they can do is go is to leave is God can't be doing.
God can't be in control. God doesn't know what's going on. And in the foolishness of that type of thinking, they don't stay put. But the Thessalonican Church and what I'm encouraging you here this morning, believers is when when God in his providential, loving care brings these difficult struggles and trials to you in your life, is that your first thought isn't to raise the white flag and say I or or to throw in the towel and say I quit.
But to realize that God has you there for a purpose, he knows exactly what you're going through. He knows what he's going to work in your life to teach you, to depend upon him, to to to prove the genuineness of your faith, to strengthen you, to comfort you with the comfort where with only he can comfort you with.
And you'll be able to comfort others in the future. I mean, there are opportunities my wife has had for those others, ladies who have lost young infants to be able to come alongside and help them because of what she's gone through.
And, you know, the same same thing. But the the idea is that we're not to run. We're not to flee, but to remain constant. Because we have an anticipation that what God says he will do, as MacArthur defines in endurance, he says, a persevering anticipation of seeing Christ's future glory and receiving our eternal inheritance.
It's based upon the word of God. Christ will never disappoint his dear ones. He will never fail us. The hope of our eternal inheritance is being protected by Christ. Our eternal home is as sure as the chair that you're sitting on.
If you're sitting. If you are a child of God, as sure as you can see my face or hear my voice one day, you will see Jesus face to face, you will be seated with him in the heavenly realm, you will share in all that he possesses because you are joint heirs with Christ.
You will walk on the golden streets and see the walls of Jasper that to this point you've only dreamed about or sung about. You will sing in the heavenly choir with millions of others and serve the Lord Jesus Christ, our master, for all eternity.
I was going to give just a quick illustration of this anticipation. As I said in during the time of prayer, many of you know, Adrian Howard, young girl in the church has had surgery to correct a curvature in her spine.
Right now, she's enduring pain. She's enduring pain, but she is looking forward to and her and her family is looking forward to the better quality of life that the doctor has promised based upon his diagnosis and the treatment that he's given her.
And I couldn't think of a better illustration in this in that that she's enduring that pain, knowing that something better is coming. She's enduring it in the present, knowing and thinking about the future.
And one day, brethren, there is a better life awaiting us. Jesus has promised it to us. In First Corinthians, chapter 15, it says that that we will be changed. In the moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
This mortal will put on immortality. This corrupt body will put on uncorruptedness or one that will not fade away. We will see Jesus face to face. He will come, as it says, even if we're alive at the time of the rapture, the Lord will come and take us to to be with him.
We have an eternal inheritance waiting for us, preserved and guarded by the Lord. We will one day see all the dear saints and loved ones that have gone on before us. But that's not the rest of the story, is it?
I mean, that'll be great, won't it? I mean, that little Naomi, Deb and I will see one day. Those that have gone on before that you've loved, those saints that have we've come to the funerals here at the church, we will see once again.
But we've got our eye and our heart set on something far greater, don't we? Certainly, the old gospel quartet quartet song rings true. All the best is yet to come. When I walk through heaven's gates. For the first time, I see grandma.
No, that's going to be great, though, won't it? First time I see my husband or wife. The first time I see my child, it'll be wonderful. No, the best is yet to come. When I walk through heaven's gates for the first time, I see Jesus.
I can hardly wait. I can hardly wait. He will show me to my mansion and say, this is your home. Yes, I have a feeling in my heart the best is yet to come and only in our heart. But it's there because of what the word of God says.
One day we will see Jesus in all his splendor and glory. This is biblical hope rooted in Christ. If it's present in your life, you will possess an endurance that is able to remain steadfast and persevere in the face of any suffering or temptation or hardship.
Not only will you be able to say no to sin and the self in this world, you will be powerfully enabled by the grace of God to endure the most severe hardships because nothing could ever take place on earth that could compare to the glories of being with Jesus in heaven for the endless ages to come.
Can I get an amen on that? Thank you. Jesus Christ himself is our hope, the hope of our eternal glory. And it's possible that the apostle Paul was concerned about the stability of this church for sure.
They had adversity and persecutions they were experiencing, but they didn't raise the white flag of surrender. They didn't give in to Satan's attacks. They didn't apostatize. They showed a tenacious endurance in the face of extreme opposition.
Had Paul seen others leave the faith? Yes. Demas has forsaken me, Paul said, but Luke is with me. Others had forsaken the faith for whatever reason. They might have had some vague nebulous expectation about future things, but not the Thessalonian church.
Instead, their hope inspired a solid confidence rooted in the real expectation of Christ's coming. Will BBC and her members be opposed by spiritual and physical hostiles? Yes. Will BBC and her members suffer severe trials and persecutions?
Yes. That is probable because Paul wrote Timothy. He said, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But even in that persecution and the extreme attacks and the powerful temptations that come, we are reminded in the Psalm, Psalm 37, around verse 23 and 24, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way.
And though we fall, he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholds him with his hand. We have great hope in the Lord. What are you hoping in this morning? If you're a believer in Christ this morning here, what are you hoping in?
Does your hope that you claim to have inspire you to remain, to stay under pressure and not quit? Are you guilty of trying to blame God? Are you guilty of of of having a sour disposition because what God has brought your way?
Or are you patiently enduring, knowing that God loves you and cares for you and has your good in mind and has promised that where he is, there will you will be also. I hope I've made myself very plain this morning.
In closing, Gene Green wrote this. Paul and Silas and Timothy remembered these Thessalonians. He remembered their work that produced their work was produced by faith. He remembered their labor that was prompted by love.
He remembered their endurance that was inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus. They found in these believers, Paul, as he remembered them, verse three, remembering them without ceasing as he's praying for them.
He remembered these things in their in their lives, this trinity of classic Christian virtues, faith, love and hope. Michael Holmes said faith, love and hope. These three words function almost as a shorthand summary of the essentials of Christianity.
Faith is the assurance that God has acted in Christ to save his people. Love is the present expression and experience of a restored fellowship between God and his people. And hope is the confidence that he who has begun a good work in you will carry it out to completion and that the future holds for the believer is not wrath in the future.
It is not wrath, but salvation through the Lord Jesus. Paul not only if you notice here, Paul not only listed three virtues, but he identified in verse three. What they ought to produce in the believer's life, and I'd ask you this afternoon, take an inventory this week, take an inventory.
If you say that you have faith, which has come from God and a love that shed abroad in your hearts and a hope in future things that God has promised, what kind of an impact that they had on your life?
Are you miserable or are you doubtful all the time or are you complaining to God all the time or there is no victory in your life and you cave under pressure? Now we grow in it, yes. But is there some visible, tangible evidence that there's action because of these virtues that God has worked in your life?
I love what Hebert said. These are three active ingredients in the Christian's life which find their expression in active work, patient toil and enduring constantly. And the last quote that I'm going to make from someone else, I like this one, too.
I just throw it in there. Lightfoot faith. This will help put it in perspective. A little faith rests in the past. Love works in the present, but hope looks forward to the future. Oh, my brother and sister in Christ, what measure or degree of these virtues are present in your life?
If examined by your church leaders, would they find you healthy and would they find a viable portion of faith, love and labor in your life? So much so, and the result of it, the fruit of it being your life, that it is a faith that works, a labor that loves and a hope that endures.
And based upon what your church leaders would find, that would be enough for them to be able to get on their knees like the Apostle Paul and thank God for you. Oh, may you so live and be filled with the spirit of God so that God remembers and God rewards what you've exhibited in your life by the way of these three virtues and your church leaders also remember what's taking place in your lives and give thanks unto God for his great work in you.
And I'm going to close by reading in First Corinthians, chapter 15. I promise this is the last verse. First Corinthians, chapter 15. When Paul says at the end of that chapter, it's not a this is I'm showing you a mystery.
We're all going to be changed in the moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. Verse 53, the corruptible must put on incorruption and the mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your sting?
Oh, grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. But notice here, but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ and the practicality where it all comes down with these three virtues.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Let's pray together. Let's pray. Father, what a.
What a wonderful portion of scripture to be able to look at to see what you're doing in our lives. And we pray that you'd overshadow BBC and its members, Lord, that you would undergird, that you would stand strong on our behalf, that you would favor us yet another day and yet another week that is ahead of us to be able to be a people who walked as Christ walked.
To be a people who, as the verses that we've been looking at for these three weeks. Would be a people who have faith that is active. To have as the motivation in our lives for everything that we do, just as Jesus did.
To love others. And have a love that labors and puts forth an effort, and then as we looked at this week to not be a people who are ho-hum, to be a people are so cast down because of what comes our way.
Yet it is difficult. Yes, Lord. And we pray for strength as we're weeping and as as we're going through difficult times, strength and grace to be able to, by your power, endure because of the hope that you've given us in unseen things, hope of the future, seeing Christ face to face.
What a blessed hope, a glorious appearing of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ. Help us forgive us where we have. We have failed you in this area. And Lord, strengthen us this week that we might be testimonies of your grace, shining trophies for the grace of God and live lives that are fitting of the gospel.
We've been saved by the gospel. May we live by that gospel, proving to this world that lives such hopeless lives that we are a people of hope, a hope in Christ. And it's changed us and enabled us to go through our struggles.
Thank you. Thank you, Father, for your great care for us. Thank you for the unspeakable gift of your son. Thank you for the day that is ahead of us in the week that is ahead of us. Help us, Lord, to be mindful of all that we do in thought and word and indeed that it truly might bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ, for we pray it in his name.
Amen.