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I would ask you to keep in prayer for Pastor Mike as he and his family are away in California. And while he is there, I will be preaching, Lord willing, this Sunday and two more Sundays. And I'm going to start...
And I'm excited about this to start preaching another book for us here at BBC. We'll begin looking at the Apostle's First Letter to the Thessalonian Church. And if you'd like to turn there, if you've left your Bible open, you can turn there.
That's where we will be. I'd like to give you a background, though, first in this. And before I get into the background, sometime in this sermon, I will kind of allude to this question. And have you ever asked yourself this question?
When there was some meeting together of some folks, did you ever hear somebody say, or you yourself may have said, I would love to be a fly on the wall in that room with those people that are there? Now it could be for good intentions.
It could be for bad intentions. But I would love to be a fly on the wall. I'm going to come back to that. I have so much to cover this morning, I can't go into a super long introduction. What I'm going to do first of all is give you a background of this book.
This letter was written by the Apostle Paul in about AD 51. All the T's of the Bible's, Bible names of those books are together. If you find the T's like Thessalonians, Timothy, and Titus, they're all right there.
Thessalonians is the first one. This is Paul's second letter that he wrote. The first one being Galatians. And as was his custom, if you look in chapter one, verse one, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy unto the church of the Thessalonians.
He lets himself known, or he identifies himself as being the author of this letter, the one sending it to them. The background here is that Thessalonica stood at the northern end of the Aegean Sea and became the capital of Macedonia around 168 BC.
The city had a free city status in that it was ruled by its own citizens in the Roman Empire, part of the Roman Empire, and it served as a key commercial and political hub of this region known to us today as northern Greece, northeastern Greece.
The population at Paul's time was about 200 ,000 people. We can read about how Paul got here to this area by the work of God, of course, if we look in Acts chapter 16 through 18. I would ask you, if you hold your place in 1 Thessalonians, turn back to Acts chapter 17, because I would just like to show a little bit about what took place and how this church was established in this region of the world.
Acts 16 to 18 is Paul's second missionary journey. In Acts chapter 17, we see that he comes to Thessalonica. Acts 17, I'm reading from the King James. Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
So, Paul comes here, and there's a purpose why God has brought Paul and his companions here to this area, because God would have the gospel brought to these idolatrous people. God has some people here that he's intending to save, so he sends his missionaries.
And it says, Paul's method here in verse 2, it says, as his manner was, he goes into the synagogue, and what Paul would do is he would go to a certain place where God would direct him to go, and he would go into the synagogue, and here it says that he reasoned with them out of the scriptures in the synagogue, and if they would reject it, he would then go to the Gentiles.
And you'll notice here, as Paul goes in, he does not bring in human man-centered tactics or cleverness or wit. It says that he reasoned with them out of what? Not the veggie tales. He didn't reason with them out of Robert's rules of order.
It says he reasoned with them out of the scriptures, using the word of God, and may I say, if you ever want to experience effective evangelism or to be a powerful witness for the Lord, you must take up the sword of the Spirit.
It is, and that sword of the Spirit is the word of God. Nothing is more powerful when it comes to opening a hardened heart, and the word of God is like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces, and if anyone is to ever be born again, it will be by the truth of the word of God contained in this book, the Bible, and God uses it to save sinners, and I say take it up and use it when you're speaking to others.
So Paul goes in, and he reasoned with them out of the scriptures, and he comes here, and Paul comes to this city for a brief stay. It's a brief visit, but it's very effective, effective in that I mean God does a mighty work here, and how do we know it's brief?
Well, we see in verse 2, it says that he came and he reasoned with them for three Sabbath days, those three weekends, and it could have been some time before it and some time afterwards. He could have been there anywhere from three to five to six weeks.
We don't know exactly. Sure, it doesn't tell us, but it was a short visit, but nonetheless, it was a profitable visit. There was a good time spent here, and God really blessed this missionary effort of getting the gospel and them obeying the word of God.
Paul brings them the life-changing message of the gospel. It is not a message of turn over a new leaf, for the leaf on the other side of the sinner's life is just as corrupt on the first side, so that doesn't help.
It is not a message of what you can do for God, because all you can do is sin, and all God does best is to save, and Paul also doesn't bring a plan or a gimmick or a 12-step program. No, he fires away with the old, old story of Jesus and his love that we've sung about, that we've considered this morning.
Wasn't that hymn, Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus, just wonderful? That is just, I mean, they just don't write them like that today. He brings the gospel, springs of Christ, who alone can save. Wherever Paul goes, he preaches Christ.
We see this in verse 3, opening and alleging or explaining and giving evidence that Christ had to suffer, speaking of Christ suffering his death, and then, and it says, speaking, he must need to have suffered and also rise again from the dead, and if you ever read the book of Acts, and you look through the messages preached, the resurrection is threaded through it.
It is important. We, Christ Jesus, was raised again so that we could be justified. It is essential. It is an essential element, component of the gospel. Paul boldly declares that Jesus, and he goes on, and he says that Jesus is the Christ.
He's the anointed one. That's what it means. He's the Messiah. Paul knows that faith cannot rest in any man-made or man-centered message. Faith must find its resting place in Jesus Christ. And then, as the gospel has come in, and they're reasoning with them and explaining and giving evidences, going back to the scriptures and showing what the prophets had spoken concerning the Messiah, concerning Christ, and the Jesus that they're preaching is that same one that the prophets were speaking of, there are two responses.
There are always two responses when it comes to the gospel. Any time that life-changing message is brought to bear upon anyone, there are those two responses. People will either embrace it or they will reject it.
And in verse 4, there are some of the listeners are persuaded by Paul's reasoning. Some of them believed it said, and it said they consorted or joined with Paul and Silas and of the God-fearing or the devout Greeks, a great multitude, and of the chief woman, not a few.
So folks are saved. They embrace the gospel. They receive it. They believe upon Christ by the marvelous and gracious work of God. And these believers consort with or they join with, as it says there, Paul and Silas.
They become part of the local church to which Paul writes the letter that we're looking at. That's the foundation. That's where it has started. God saved some people and the church has started there in this region.
And I wanted to give you an aside. This is free. In verse 4, it says, as I was looking at this, it says that they join. These people who believe the gospel joined. And I always find it remarkable that in the New Testament, when the gospel comes to a region and people are saved, that their new God-given inclination is to join up with other believers.
You see that even as the churches are established. You remember when the disciples are preaching the gospel and they are beaten in Acts chapter 4 and 5. And rather than turntail and run, what they do is they go back to the church and they go back to prayer and go back to God and they go back to the people of God who love God and how important it is.
And I see this. When people are released from their captivity to sin and they're delivered from their idols, they want to, as the songwriter put it, cast in their lot with the people of God. Show me somebody who's been saved and is reading their Bible in order to practically apply that Bible to their lives.
And I will show you someone who not only obeys in taking the first step of obedience, which Pastor Mike and the elders of the church we've been promoting is to be baptized. That's the first step of obedience for a believer.
But beyond that, associating yourself with or joining with a local body. If you claim to be a Christian and you examine your New Testament with the heart of a Berean, you will have to conclude that it is God's intention for believers to cast in their lots together, to labor together, to pray together, to be members together of a local New Testament church.
And if you don't see that, you've either not been studying your Bible or not been studying it as a Berean has, or you've been directly disobeying the word of God. And you know, bottom line, you're missing the blessing of that commitment that comes when someone joins up and says, I want to sign up and be a part of that body.
There is no biblical support for, I saw it someplace today, I thought it was in Sunday school, Pastor Steve's Sunday school, cafeteria style Christianity, or drive-through commitment to the local church.
I'll just kind of drive up, get a little bit and go. There's no connection to that building or those people that are in there. That is the type of religion I know that I was saved out of. I was saved out of the Roman Catholic Church.
And when I went to church, when I went to church, it was for about an hour, but there was no connection with the people there at all whatsoever. It was high, it was niceties, but it wasn't a bearing of one another's burdens as Christ would have us to bear, a true love and a devotion, the commitment, and as it were, a rolling up of the sleeves together in the promotion, in the proclamation of the gospel, laboring together for the saints, for the body to be built up and for the world to be reached for Christ.
And I want to exhort you, anyone who is keeping distance from this church body or any church body, if you're hearing my voice, you have to travel back to your church. If you are Christ, then become a part of what Christ our Lord holds near and dear, the church that he is building is near and dear to his heart and do not put it off any longer.
I'm done with that aside and I will get back to my text here and as we just look at the history of what took place here and how the gospel comes to this region. So we've seen in verse four, there are some that believe and as I said earlier, there's another response and in verses five through eight, we see that there are unbelieving Jews and I want you to notice some, the Jews which believe not, verse five, moved with envy or jealousy took unto them, and I'm in the King James and I just love this, certain lewd fellows of the baser sort.
Now, does that sound like somebody you want to bring home for supper or someone for your daughter to marry? Of course not. Evil, wicked men who would not believe and did you notice there, it says, the Jews which believe not, moved with envy, took certain lewd fellows together and gathered a company.
They kind of gathered together. We are people who I believe that God has made and I'm going to kind of going back to my side a little bit, I'm opening that up a little bit, join. You're going to join yourself someplace.
You're going to become part of something. I mean, we have clubs and associations and churches and organizations and fellowships all throughout the world, secular and religious. I believe there's a need for us to be able to join because we can't do it ourselves.
We can't do it without God and we can't do it as far as being saved and as a church and as believers, there's no such thing as a lone ranger Christian. There's no such thing as being on an island by yourself.
I'll stay home and I'll have church. I'll turn on the TV and it's not church that might be study, but church is ecclesia. It is it is the the gathering together, the calling out of those in coming, the coming together, even in the Greek.
It is the bringing together of people. And these guys, these lewd fellows, these evil, wicked men, they gather together. What are they going to do? They're going to attack the Christians. They come after Paul and his and his company.
They form a mob and openly attack the Christians. They reject the gospel and therefore they are rejecting Christ and they oppose God's missionaries. And the church then takes Paul and sends him on his way by night to Berea.
So here we've seen a quick overview of how it all came. This is just you can read a little bit more about this later as you have more time. But this is what took place when God brought Paul and Silas to Thessalonica.
Brief trip again, but very fruitful trip. And as we turn now back to First Thessalonians chapter one, God saved many folks and a church was established in this city before Paul and his companions were evicted.
Now, in continuing on with the background of the writing of this book, within a year, Paul sends Timothy back to this region because Paul's left. He sends Timothy back to obtain a report on this new church and the other new churches in the area, one in Berea and one in Thessalonica.
And we see in First Thessalonians, if you've got your book open there, look in chapter three. Paul says, wherefore, when we could no longer forbear or endure, we thought it good or best to be left at Athens alone.
So Paul says, I'm staying in Athens, but I'm sending Timothy. Verse two, chapter three, verse two, our brother and minister of God and a fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith.
So Paul sends Timothy back in. Timothy then goes there. He finds out what's going on. He brings information about the well-being of the church. And it's good news. He brings that back to Paul. There are some concerning things there, too.
There are things that Paul wants to deal with as we as we go through this book. We're going to see some of those things that Paul deals with. One in particular is what happens. What happens to the believers who've already died?
Some say the Lord has already come. If you ever read this book, every single chapter deals with the coming of Christ again. And what about us who are alive? And and how does that whole order go in? And Paul deals with that.
So he he must have heard things from Timothy. And Paul wants to what is he going to do as he writes this book? He wants to encourage the church. He wants to answer any false false allegations about him in his ministry and his motives.
He wants to comfort, as we're going to see in future weeks, the persecuted flock to express his joy in their faith, to remind them of the importance of moral purity, to condemn the sluggard lifestyle, to correct wrong understanding, as I've said, of prophetic events, to defuse tensions that might be within the church and to exhort the church in the basics of Christian living.
Now, I took the time and certainly I didn't do a great job. We're like about 15 minutes into the message to give you a background. I don't think it's wasted time because, Lord willing, as we cover the purposes and themes of that are in this book, as I've already started to do today, I believe it's helpful to answer some of the basic questions of the who and the what and the where and the why of any book.
It's always good to do that whenever you read a book in the Bible because you understand the setting and the context of that book. And if you have trouble with this sometime, I recommend if you don't have it, MacArthur has put out a quick reference guide to the scriptures.
I think it's called MacArthur's quick reference guide to the Bible. And it has just a few pages, two to four pages of every book in the Bible. Much of what I've already shared with you this morning, I've gleaned from that and it just goes over each book, the author, when it was written, why it was written, doctrine in that book, important words that are in the book, an outline of the book.
And I encourage you to buy one paperback, very inexpensive, and you'll get your money's worth out of that. With that background, let's look at the book. As I said in verse one, Paul says that he is the author, he identifies himself so as so, and he says, as he says, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy under the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be unto you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time here because I need to get to my text this morning, but I just want you to consider just a couple of things here. His greeting contains the hope for them that God would grant them grace and peace.
This is a very typical and repeated greeting of the apostle and one we, I believe, should imitate when we think of other believers who are removed from us, maybe geographically or for a short period of time due to their schedules or our schedules.
And what better blessing could we desire to come on our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ than for God to shower them with his favor and settle them with his peace? And I encourage you to pray for others in that way.
For the sake of time, though, I need to get to verse two. I want to read that verse. We give thanks to God always for you, making mention of you in our prayers. Paul says we give thanks as he thinks upon the Thessalonian church.
As he considers what took place in their lives, as he hears this report from Timothy, it says that he gives thanks to God. That's where the sermon's title came from today. Actually, when I went to type it up, I actually added another word.
I put, do your church leaders thank God for you? That's the title of the message. Do your church leaders thank God for you? Paul is the spiritual leader of this church, is he not? And when he goes into his prayer closet, he makes mention of them as he prays to God.
And what he says to God about them is good. He is thankful to God for these believers. And as a leader and one who has oversight of this church, Paul desires the good of the church. He writes to instruct and to encourage them.
And as he begins to put his pen to paper, his thoughts go back to these dear saints. He remembers how God had brought him into this region and how God had opened their hearts to the message of salvation in Christ.
He is thankful, as we're going to see as we look through chapter one, for certain virtues that are in their lives. He's thankful for their election of God. He's thankful for their salvation. He's thankful for their influence upon others.
And we're going to study it a little bit more, of course, when we get there. But he's thankful that God radically changed these people. If you look down in verse nine, it says, No doubt Paul was very thankful to God for saving them from the wrath of God, which is to come.
For forgiving them of their sins, for causing them to understand that though they were sinful, Jesus Christ could, as we sang this morning, Christ could wash away every sin is power in the blood. He was thankful to God that God had granted them repentance.
And you notice that in this verse, I mean, in order for them, the repentance is definitely here. They turned to God, but they turned away from their idolatry. That's repentance away from idolatry or away from sin.
And they turned to the Lord. He was thankful for that, that God had enabled them. God had done this work to cause them to turn away from their sin. You don't have to turn to it, but in Acts chapter 20, just as another reference, when Paul was talking to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 and in verse 20, he said there that I do not keep back anything.
I don't shrink in telling you anything. When I declared to you that which is profitable and in teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both the Jews and the Greeks, repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they're both important.
The gospel demands repentance. And if you preach a gospel that does not require repentance, it's not a gospel. It's not good news. If all a person has to do is believe and not leave or quit their sin to flee from their sin, that type of message will not say because it leaves the center in the same pigpen that they were beforehand.
That message came. See, there's two components to conversion, and that's what took place as the gospel came to Thessalonica. God graced these people. God favored those people. God favored us. And God has graced us in the same similar fashion.
Two components of conversion, repentance and faith, both necessary, both graces from God. And if I could speak of of conversion or liken it into a coin, a coin has two sides. And on each side is an inscription.
And when you have heads up, as soon as you turn it, you see tails. You turn it. It's an automatic thing. One side disappears. The other side comes forth. And when there's repentance, there's faith. God does this in our lives.
God grant grants us this gift to us. And Paul was grateful for it when he saw this in their lives. He witnessed God's power in this city. And our text in verse two says that he gives thanks to God for them.
He gives thanks. Though this this is kind of a tough text to preach through because there are no imperatives here. This is this this is not an imperative and this is not a prescriptions per se for us to follow.
But we can derive principles from the word of God because all scripture is profitable for us. We don't have an apostle of Paul. We don't have the church at Thessalonica, but we do have the Lord Jesus Christ who is the head of this church.
We do have leaders in this church that God has given to this church. And we have members of this church and we have some of the same relationships and some of the same things can take place. And I think it's can be profitable for us as we study this.
Says he gave thanks to them under the Lord Jesus Christ, thanks unto God. And as he starts working through this book and as he starts unfolding this, he's going to say what he's thankful for. And we're going to look at that in just a moment.
But here now I return back to the introduction. Here's an interesting thought. Have you ever wanted to attend an elders meeting? You know, those secret meetings. And want to be a fly on the wall to be able to listen in on the conversations and the prayers that are taking place during that meeting of your church elders.
In those meetings, your church leaders take steps and they make arrangements to shepherd the flock here at BBC. And if you're listening to my voice and you're a member of another solid church, I trust your elders do the same and faithfully tending to the flock.
Elders are charged with your care, and part of that care is to know the state of the flock. And in order to know the state of the flock, we are either engaged in conversation with you, we observe your life, we observe your choices, we observe, as it were, the fruit that is growing on the branches of your life.
We observe your decision-making processes, your vocabulary, the way you react under burdens and trials and pressures, we notice your conduct inside and outside the church when we are aware of it, and so on.
And in every meeting with the other business, church business that we discuss, not everybody on the list, but we discuss the well-being of several members of BBC that might be of note at that time, and we pray for the sheep by name.
And here's the point that I want you to get. When your church leaders meet, and it's time to discuss or pray for the believers or members of BBC, and your name comes up, what would we be saying about you?
Or what would we be praying or telling God in prayer about you? It would not be gossip, of course, we're not doing that. This is constructive, it's profitable, we're charged to do this to care for the flock.
It's our responsibility as a group of elders of caring, elders, pastors, church leaders who are concerned with the spiritual well-being of those that we've been given the oversight to, understanding that one day we have to give an account for that stewardship of the church and overseeing the flock.
When your church leaders consider the evidences from your life, as a person who claims to have repented of your sin and turned to Jesus Christ in faith, and you are a follower of Christ, that's your testimony, that's what you're saying.
When we evaluate the fruit of your life, your behavior towards your family and church members, your attitude while you're on the job or in your neighborhoods, dealing with your neighbors, when you drive through that restaurant, what do you say to the people in the window?
When someone cuts you off on the highway, what is your first inclination? When you're in school or at home, how do you act when sufferings and trials come your way? How about the way husbands treat their wives and vice versa, or parents with children in a Christian home or in a relationship where at least one of them is a believer?
How about whether or not you are involved in any kind of service to Christ in this church, serving other people? What is your commitment or your level of commitment or your lack of commitment to this local New Testament church in your giving or your support?
Or as I said earlier, the rolling up of your sleeves to do something for the kingdom. I think you get the picture. This is what the Apostle Paul did. No doubt he heard what Timothy had said was going on in the church, and all he could do is praise God.
Thank you, God, for what's going on in that region of Thessalonica. He did it. It says here that he made mention of them in his prayers. And it wasn't something he just did onesie-twosie. He said, when I give thanks to God, always for you.
He's giving thanks. This is a perpetual thing. It's going on all the time as he thinks of them. When the elders think of you, would it be that we would be thanking God for you? Or are you a grief and disappointment to us?
And of course a grief and a disappointment, of course, to our Lord. Does your name bring us joy or cause us to moan? Do you cause us to be excited and elated about what God is doing in your life and the commitment that you have to Christ and to the people of Christ and to the Word of God?
Or are we pleading with God to grant you repentance so that you will turn from your sin, your idolatry, your apathy, maybe your laziness, maybe your coldness, lack of service, and so on? Unlike Paul's unpleasant task when he had to write to the churches, let's say, at Galatia or at Corinth, to correct them in their waywardness, in their errors, Paul opens up this book with thankfulness to God for these believers.
And would to God that we would have that testimony here at BBC. Would to God that we would have a testimony that we would be a people that would so order our lives that as God sees us, he's pleased with all that we do and it glorifies him.
And as your church leaders think about you and make mention of you in their prayers, it is all thanks unto God. Would to God that that would be our testimony. And may it be so. As Paul writes this church, you'll notice, it says in verse 2, he gives thanks to God for them.
He doesn't thank them, although I'm sure there were times when he was with them that he did thank those immediately that helped him or were an encouragement to him or did something for him. But here, there's a difference.
Paul knows that the source of the radical change in this church and these believers, the source of it all, the reason for it all, was the same as his testimony. He was what he was by the grace of God and by God's grace, God's grace had taught them to be servants, to be faithful to God, to be committed to the word of God, to the preaching of the gospel.
As we're going to see, there were examples. They were bright, shining testimonies. They were imitators of the pattern of the apostle and they gave themselves to the Lord. Paul sees this and he gives thanks to God, not to them.
Oh, my dear brother or sister in Christ, can you say the same for yourself? Do we, your church leaders, thank God for you? Let me ask this practical question, maybe to put this in perspective. Are you living a spirit-filled life in obedience to the word of God that is not only commendable to God, but it also causes your elders to give thanks to God?
You might be asking yourself, well, what does this type of life look like? We're going to see. What are the characteristics or the attributes of this? We'll see. You might be saying, I've really messed it up because I'm sure the elders are moaning a bit when they survey the flock and my name is mentioned.
Well, there's plenty of time to make that right. And I want to leave you with three spiritual qualities. And people are thinking, oh, he'll never get through three. You're right. We're going to get through one.
We'll do one this morning. Three spiritual qualities that, if present in your life, will no doubt cause your church leaders to give thanks to God for you. Three qualities that Paul mentions here that no doubt, if they are present in your life, will cause your church leaders to give thanks to God.
They're listed in verse three. I'll read verse three. Remembering without ceasing. What is Paul remembering about them? What is it that caused him to give thanks? He said he gives thanks in verse two, always as he makes mention of them in his prayers.
Three, he remembers, he recollects these things as he thinks back about them when he was there or as he gets the information from Timothy about them. Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love and your patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.
The first, the first virtue or first quality is in order for you to live a life that is commendable to God and causes your church leaders to thank God for you, you must possess a faith that works. I'm really kind of thrilled, so to speak, God confirming different things.
I mean, if you were if you were here in Sunday school, you would know what I was talking about, because this message fits and dovetails just correctly with with Pastor Steve's Sunday school lesson. It just comes together, and I love the way the Lord does that at times because I didn't know what he was teaching.
He didn't know what I was preaching. In order for you to live a life that is commendable to God and causes your church leaders to thank God for you, you must possess a faith that works. MacArthur said a true saving belief in Jesus Christ will always result in a mighty work of God that produces change in one's nature or disposition.
Get this. A work of faith is action representative of the transforming power of that regeneration. Simply stated, the elect or a believer or one who comes to Christ, they engage in holy, righteous deeds to the honor of God.
The word work here in verse three, the Greek is to me, it means deed. It means the achievement or the function itself. And what Paul is saying is that their God given faith was authentic because it produced righteous deeds in their lives.
I'm going to I'm going to hit that nail with this hammer with this point many times. And before we leave, we'll get it, because if I need to hit it that many times, so I get it, it'll hopefully be helpful to you.
In other words, their faith was followed by works. Do you get that their faith was followed by works? Their faith had sprung into action, spiritual action. They were no longer the same idolaters as they were in the past.
Verse nine, because when God granted them repentance and faith, all things passed away. Behold, the new had come. Their former works of idolatry and sinfulness coming from their lives dishonored God, did not please God.
But their new works brought forth from their faith that God had given to them, brought God much pleasure and praise, and it was recognized by the apostle. And God and he gave thanks to God for it. Now, we should consider maybe some other examples in the New Testament.
We don't have to turn there because there's many of them. If you'd like to write them down or if you want me to email this to me, if you want me to email this to you sometime, I will. Some of these verses.
But what is the faith chapter of the Bible? Hebrews 11, right? Hebrews 11, faith chapter of the Bible. We would go to Hebrews chapter 11 to get every definition, every nuance, what faith is. Right? When we go there, well, when you go to Hebrews chapter 11, you only got two or three verses that tell you what faith is.
What you see in Hebrews 11 is what faith does. There's a big difference. You could say that you have faith, but if nothing comes forth from your life, that isn't faith, the biblical faith, saving faith.
In Hebrews 11, we see faith leaping to action. Faith engaging. Faith, as it were, putting meat and sinews on the bones and going forth forward. By faith, you see that phrase, by faith, this person, what?
Contemplates the nuances of their navel, right? Just kind of sits there in their home. They become an island under themselves and they become the guru of Christianity, but they never talk to anybody. They never do any work.
They never engage. They never pick up anything in the church. They just in the door, out the door. By faith, right? Is that what it says in Hebrews? By faith, they just kind of skip and coast. The navel, what?
Offered a sacrifice. He offered an acceptable sacrifice to God in opposition to the type of sacrifice that was unacceptable by his brother. By faith, Noah was moved with fear to do what? To build something that he didn't know what was supposed to be taking place with that thing because it had not rained and there had not been a flood.
It did not make sense to do this thing, but by faith, his faith moved him to obey the commandment of God and build that arc to the saving of his family. By faith, Abraham, what did he do? He obeyed and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
I'm sure Sarah, when he came home with that message, was a little bit confused. Where are we going? I don't know, but we got to pack up and go. But he was, by faith, caused his feet to move one after another into uncharted territory as he trusted God.
By faith, Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice. It makes no sense, but he does it. His faith produced righteous obedience to God, even when it didn't make sense. And Moses. Moses forsakes Egypt, putting feet to his faith, and he acted as a godly person would in choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to stay in Egypt with the ungodly and temporarily enjoy sin for a short period of time.
In each one of those people's lives who were believers in the true and living God, their faith worked, their faith sprang into action. Luther's short summary of what I'm trying to say is, we are saved by faith alone.
You've heard this before. We are saved by faith alone, but faith is never alone. It's the faith alone from God that saves, but that faith is never alone. As a man, as I was looking up, his name is Green.
He says there's an active expression of that faith which comes out in good works in the person's life. Something comes forth. There are other New Testament examples. You know this as well as I do. James chapter 2.
Faith without works is what? It's dead. And he also said, show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my what? Works. I'll show you my faith by my works. He also said in chapter 1 and in verse 25, whoever looks into the Bible and being not a forgetful hearer, not just a hearer of the word, but a what?
A doer of the word. That man will be blessed in his deed. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, you all know what that is about. By grace, through faith, we've been saved by faith. All that, it's not a gift. It's not of us.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And in your memory, you shouldn't just stop there. Go on to verse 10. If you've memorized Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, where it talks about salvation, it's faith, the gift of God, we won't boast, it's all of God.
Go on and memorize verse 10, because that's just so great. For we are his workmanship. We are God's poema. We are God's handiwork, his work, his masterpiece. God is working on us. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto conferences.
Created in Christ Jesus unto debates in the church between each other of different things. I'm not saying any of these things are bad, because we have conferences, and we know people who go to debates, but it's sitting back and just kind of, we're created in Christ Jesus and ordained just to kind of sit back and just kind of meld and kind of just have some cool feeling.
No action, just cool feelings. No, we're created in Christ Jesus, and God has ordained that good works should come forth out of our lives. God had ordained those good works that we should walk in those.
You must grasp this teaching. Genuine God-wrought faith is always accompanied by genuine God-wrought works in the life of that believer or the child of God. I'm not saying that you must work for your salvation.
If anybody's confused, what is Pastor Dave saying up there? We know that it's by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone that we are saved, and it's not by works of righteousness, which we've done, but according to God's mercy, he saved us.
But the Bible is also very clear, as we have seen in some of those verses and some of the other verses. You see, I have a couple others here. We're close to these. If you would just hold your place in Thessalonians and turn to Titus.
Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus. Look in Titus chapter 2. Talk about what the grace of God teaches people. Titus 2 .12, or how about 11? Titus 2 .11, for the grace of God that brings salvation as appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.
Looking for, verse 13, that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now get verse 14, who gave himself for us. Jesus gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people.
Now these special people, these peculiar people, what are they going to be known for? They're going to be desirous of, or have a want for, or have a feeling for, or desire for. They're zealous of good take out.
No. Zealous of good Bible concordances. Now that's a good thing, but that's not what he's talking about here. Good works. It's not a thing or it's not just inactivity. They're zealous of activity, of a spiritual activity, the people of God.
Because this is what God has ordained that we should walk in. Good works. If you look back in chapter 1 of Titus, there are people here, this is an eye opener, Titus chapter 1, there are people here who it sounds just like Pastor Mike as he's preaching at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7.
There are people here, notice in verse 16, 1 -16, there are people who profess that they know God. There are people who say that they are Christians, but in works they deny God. In their works, by their deeds that they do, their unrighteous deeds, notice as it goes on, they're abominable or detestable, they're disobedient, and they're worthless for any good deed.
Oh brethren, if you've not experienced the powerful regenerating work of the Holy Spirit upon your nature, you are still in your sins. Your nature remains unchanged. And though you claim to be a Christian, a detestable lifestyle and behavior will prove that you are lost.
But on the other hand, if you've been born from above and have truly been rescued by God, a new life, a new nature follows, and you will be enabled by the Spirit of God to perform good works or good deeds, spiritual deeds that bring glory to God.
Hebrews 10 -24, for anybody who's taken notes, provoke people to good works. And who can forget the blessed words of our Lord Jesus when he said, let your light so shine before men, in Matthew 5, that they may see what?
Your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Good works. How about you, professing believer? Does your faith work? Is your life marked by putting feet to the gospel? Do you live out the gospel day to day?
When you read the Bible, instead of saying, God is restricting me by what he's saying, you say, on the other hand, you say, God's word is a lamp under my feet and a light under my path, and I will purpose with all of my heart to live out my faith openly, unashamedly.
And I want to show that salvation, the salvation I claim to have received from God, has produced holy conduct, godly fruit, pure motives, and a consistent life of good works. Will you say that I've been transformed by faith and I purpose that my life is not going to consist of mere words and empty promises or sinful disobedience, but instead, action is going to be the key in my Christian life.
I resolve to live out my faith daily, so there is no question that I'm a follower of Christ. My life is going to matter. I will make a difference in the lives of others by being enabled by God to maintain a pattern of good spiritual works in my life.
MacArthur again saying about this subject, genuine saving faith is, saving faith is, by definition, powerfully inclined toward obedience to God. Is your life powerfully inclined towards obedience to God?
If you weren't here for Sunday school, get it, Brother Steve's thing about obedience. Brothers and sisters in Christ, since you've believed upon Christ through the saving of your soul, can you say this of yourself?
Is your desire truly, as it's revealed in the Bible, one of a heart full of obedience or desiring obedience, or are you faking it? Are you going through the motions so that other people think that you are a believer when you are not, and you don't want to feel bad or you don't want to feel left out, you want to kind of try to talk the talk, but you go on with the charade of your life.
Oh, give it up. Dear one, give that up and heed a simple children's song Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe. Doing exactly what the Lord commands, doing it cheerfully. Notice this phrase, action is the key.
Do it immediately and joy you will receive for if we believe the word we receive, we always will obey. Paul saw that in this church. They were people, as he made mention of them in his prayers, they were people who would obey.
Do you possess a faith that works? If not, then the faith you claim to have may not be saving faith. And you need to throw it in the trash can and look to Christ for the very first time, believing he died and was buried and rose again so that you might have spiritual life in him.
If you do nothing, you will be lost and suffer God's judgment for all eternity, paying for your sins in hell. And if there's someone here today that wants to work for their salvation, I will oblige. I will help you.
There is a place in the New Testament where it says what work you must do in order to be saved. Some group of men came to Jesus and they said, Master, what must we do to do the works of God? John 6, 28 and 29, if you're taking notes.
John 6, 28 and 29. What do we do that we might do the works of God? And Jesus said, believe on him. This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent. Believe on Christ. That's the work.
That's where it begins, laying hold on Christ by faith. Bottom line, though, you must repent and believe the gospel. And if you come to Christ, trusting him completely, you will be saved. He will save you.
And what will follow that faith is a life of obedience and of good works. And to every believer listening to my voice this morning, does activity spring forth from and is it brought about by your faith?
Is your faith an active faith? I like this word, an energetic faith, a faith that produces real strength and real spiritual fruit in your life. Are you a person who desires to help others? Let me see if I can get back to finding it.
Oh, I know where it was. It was one of the quotes that I had skipped over. And it talked about different types of work that we can do when it comes to providing for those that are sick, providing for those that are needy, visiting those in hospitals, opening up your home for hospitality, finding something in this church to do.
If you're a member of this church, there's something that you can do to support the work here of the gospel and of the edification of the saints here. It might be writing cards or making meals for people who are not doing that well.
And what it's going to take is an eye to look around and people will talk to people and they will say what is upon their hearts or what is breaking their hearts. And if they're in need, do something to meet that need.
That's simple to do. Give them a cup of water in Jesus' name. Some will hold just back even a cup. Hold it back. And how can we or how could we do that in saying that we are believers in Christ? An energetic faith, a faith that produces real spiritual fruit.
If not, it has a saying. When someone has not engaged that organ that's between the ears, in our family we say, what are you thinking? I am a Christian and I'm not doing anything for Christ. Did Jesus die for you so that you could live the rest of your life for yourself?
I borrow one of Paul's statements, God forbid, may it never be. He said in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 15, he says something along these lines, Christ died for us that we should not live any longer for ourselves but live unto him who died for us and was risen again.
The whole of your Christian life is supposed to be characterized by this first thing that Paul thanked God for, a faith that works or a work of faith. This question, is your faith an active faith, is vital.
If one of your church leaders were to ask you, what work of faith did you perform in the last three days? What work of faith did you do in the last three days? The last week? The last month? What answer would you give?
Would you be able to quickly identify and explain how your faith is born out in godly service and activity or would you come up short? Some of you should be terrified as you consider this subject because you know your hands are empty and you've got nothing to show the Lord or your elders for your so-called profession.
If there is no true faith you will not be recognized and your church leaders will be so grieved when your name is mentioned. And many of you though, that is not the case. Praise the name of the Lord, you exhibit a godly life where your faith does spring into action because God is working in you because it's a genuine experience of salvation.
God has visited you and God has changed you. The old has passed away, the new has come. God works produced by your faith and it's a blessed gift of God. If this is true with you, God is pleased with your devotion to him and his church and you also cause your church elders to rejoice and give thanks when your name is mentioned.
Everyone here today, as I finish, do not miss this. You must possess a genuine God-given faith that works for this is one of the qualities or one of the virtues of being a believer so that you live commendably unto God and this will cause your church leaders to give thanks for you.
That is what thrilled the apostle Paul as we look in verse 2. We give thanks to God always for you, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, your energetic faith, your active faith.
That faith which caused you, as he goes on later to say, you became followers of us. You handed out the word of God. You were witnesses of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You gave yourself to God. Is that true of you?
The apostle Paul recollected this blessed church in Thessalonica and he gave thanks always for them and made mention of them in his prayers because, first of all, they had a faith that works. Now, it's important as I finish this up, it's important for us to understand, yes, when we as elders get together and we pray for you, and desiring to lead you in a right way, desiring restoration of those that need to be restored, desiring encouragement for those that are in the saddle and that are just going forward.
And as we pray for you and your name comes up and we do this in a biblical, godly way because we care for you and we want your best spiritually before God and we want you to be under shepherds, the shepherd of the church, Jesus Christ is looking at us and weighing all that we're doing and he sees the thoughts and the motives and the intentions of our hearts and isn't it important for us, if anything, if you don't think much of the elders or the leaders of the church, we think much of Christ and our desire ought to be, Lord, I want to please you as the apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5 and we're going to, Lord willing, go on in verse 3 and look at a couple more and then there are other things that the apostle Paul thanks God for, these folks for.
But I think it's just a wonderful opening to a book where Paul doesn't have to come out of the gate blasting them forever or for their waywardness but he's thanking God for them. And also when the church leaders gather together and my name comes up that I might be one that causes them to give thanks to the Lord.
May God richly bless his word to our hearts this morning.