Exhortations from 1 Thessalonians

Chapter 1 and we'll begin reading at verse 1. Paul in Savannas and Timotheus unto 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. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in your prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father, knowing brethren beloved your election of God for our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

He became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. Dropping to verse 9, he speaks of these dear saints and others, for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turn to God from your idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come. Now I'm heading in view of some exhortations in chapter 5 of this epistle, but I thought to bring to our attention a little of the background of what is taking on even as Paul writes the Apostle to this assembly of saints which he has been used of God to see established through the gospel and the truth associated with honoring the Lord in life as a gathering center.

Going back to the book of the Acts, you have Paul and Silas and Philippi and of course what took place there and as they were finally put in prison, beaten, singing and praising at the midnight hour in spite of their afflictions and the earthquake that awakened the jailer and coming into their presence, he called for a light and the question on his mind was, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And the answer that they spoke unto him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Following in the book of the Acts, you have them moving in chapter 17 to Thessalonica and the account is given there. So what I want to just draw attention in the opening verses here with those thoughts.

What was taking place as to guiding them in their movements and their exercise? Let's go back to Matthew 28. It likely will be considered this morning, tomorrow, but it's the end of the chapter and if we started the opening verses, we'll probably never get there in 45 minutes. Let's just read this, what the Lord gave for this dispensation, the divine commission.

Matthew 28 and noticing these words, verse 18, and Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power or authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world or the end of the age.

Amen. Most here will realize and recognize this was the divine commission that the Lord gave for this age and when you think of the words of Matthew recording these words, he's emphasizing the thoughts and purposes of God through Christ for this age. Beginning with a gospel, teaching those same believers the truth of baptism and Paul relates that in his Roman letter, the doctrinal teaching especially, practice evident as you see in the book of the Acts and then teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, acknowledging the Lordship of Christ and then to realize his promise, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Wonderful when we ponder or meditate at times what the Lord gave for the age recorded here and developed throughout, not only witnessed in the book of the Acts and it stops, but the work went on and the epistles leading right up to the book of the Revelation, the seven letters to the seven churches and so on. That in the year 2018 we can find ourselves by the grace of God, those of us linked with the assembly and local fellowship, we were brought into the church which is the universal aspect the moment we were saved. But we thank God for those who pointed out to us that some have learned this truth just searching it for themselves.

The Lord commanded us to be baptized. I've related right from behind this pulpit, a man named Fred Lakin who was one of the older men in the assembly at Waterloo put his hand in my shoulder, you're saved Robert, what about baptism? I simply said, I suppose. It's a truth we uphold in honor.

So I want to think of this, here's the Apostles, and Paul marvelously reached Saul of Tarsus on the road towards Damascus, saved by the grace of God, and then guided, Lord, what shalt thou have me to do? Taught of God, and now he is involved in carrying out this divine commission. Wonderful the truth of it, and how precious it is when you consider the fact that here's them moving from Philippi, now moving probably by foot, possibly just measuring it out on a little map in a Bible catalog at home, probably a hundred miles. And then what took place in Thessalonica, and we've read the opening words of the letter that he wrote to him about a year later, AD 54, according to the date in my Bible.

I'm thinking how wonderful to uphold these recognitions, that to be gathered to the Lord's name, while it may for some cost as far as the reproach of the world, and even sometimes family opposition, but to realize that this is what has been given to us from the Word of God to honor Christ, and to be linked with fellowship. Wonderful. So they come to Thessalonica, and there they are, as Acts chapter 17 records, there's persecution.

He always went to his own people. Paul had that exercise and a burden for him, but he was the apostle to the Gentiles. Wonderful when you trace the work of God.

So as we think of the fact of the saints, they heard the gospel. They experienced, as we read there in chapter 1, persecution and affliction, and yet the evidence of a changed life, as we consider these dear people. They turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, even Jesus, who delivered them, us, from the wrath to come.

You link that expression, the wrath to come, with what follows in the book and over into 2nd Thessalonians. It's likely what he had taught them is a day coming when literal wrath, the wrath of the judgment of God in the tribulation period, and eventually the Lord in reign. Marvelous what he gave those dear saints, and whatever length of time he had to stay there.

And so as you think of this being brought to pass, and it says that he had observed, he says, your work of faith, verse 3, and labor of love, and patience of hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God our Father. Wonderful when you recognize the change that was brought into their life. But as we bring it up to our day, and as we observe and honor some of us of his parents who paid the price, or even grandparents, of coming out from amongst them, the world and its systems, to be linked with a company gathered to the name, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And our dear brethren have the text right here. Gather my saints together unto me. That's Psalm 50, Old Testament truth.

Matthew 18 and 20. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Precious, precious truth.

Now for the remaining minutes, and I want to be done in a few, 20 minutes at least, let's go to chapter 5. The same epistle, 1 Thessalonians. I want to think of a few exhortations here. In all of these four or five chapters, there's truth linked with a return of Christ as to the rapture, or perhaps even in the end of chapter 3, he's coming with these saints, he's coming to in millennial glory.

But when you think of the fact that each of the chapters have some reference to his coming, it is a blessed hope, it is a promise, it is a prospect, and it could happen this afternoon before four o'clock. We believe it. We don't know when it will be.

No wonder the words of the Savior were to be waiting and watching, and so on. So in thinking as they come to the end of chapter 4, and throughout these last 2,000 years it's probably been read many and many a time, that portion around committals. It was given to these Thessalonians to realize that while some of them may have passed on already into the glory they were wondering about events, they didn't have the scriptures as we enjoy and have.

They had the oral ministry, but God was going to complete the whole canon of scriptures, and what a blessing for the human race. The gospel revealed in God's purposes. So I want to think as a view of the coming again of Christ, the rapture, you move into chapter 5, and it's a different subject altogether.

He's moving onward now. The times and the seasons bread, and verse 1, you have no need, I write unto you. Verse 2, he speaks about the day of the Lord, and then he goes on to show that that coming event, long in the future, and it's yet to be as far as what's coming for this poor world.

It's pictured on the chart as a great tribulation, and the awful times this world is going to see. We are still in the day of grace, and for you loved ones in this gathering and then here else others as well, we're glad it's for that still a day of grace for your sake. God is desiring your salvation.

But I want to move to these exhortations, dropping down to verse 16. There's about seven or eight here, just look at them. Rejoice, it's chapter 5. Rejoice evermore.

I've been pondering that little statement for a few days. Rejoice evermore. You know, we think back when we realized after trusting Christ the joy of God's salvation.

What a relief. Struggling some of us many years, others not, we weren't concerned at all times, but we're thankful for every time that God spoke to us. And for that time when we finally admitted God was right, we were but lost, helpless, guilty sinners.

Zacchaeus came down the tree and received him joyfully. But Acts chapter 8, as as Christians were beginning to be scattered, Philip goes down to Samaria and he preaches Christ to them. And you read the Lord was blessing the word, and there was great joy in the city.

The salvation of souls. What a wonder. So now I'm thinking of these dear Thessalonians.

A little exhortation before he closes the first book. The fact of this joy, it's ongoing. We're not always as happy as perhaps we were those first few days.

I was telling, well, Bernie and I were sitting across from each other at lunch. It's dinner, we call it, I guess. In the meetings that I was saved in, there were ten nights of meetings by a William Patterson, a Scotsman from Scotland, landed in Jamaica.

How he landed in Waterloo, Iowa, the Western Avenue Gospel Hall, I have no clue. Ten meetings, and he went back to Jamaica. Five of us professed to be saved.

I've said over the years we were like ripe apples that needed just a little shaking, came down. We went to the lacrosse conference, and it was in the Labor Day weekend in those years. I don't know how many times in the intervals of the conference meetings, did you really get saved? Five? Alvin Stichter says, I don't care what they say, I know I'm saved.

Well, it did work a little different on me. That, Alvin was saved on a Tuesday night. On the Saturday night testimony, if he didn't walk up and give his testimony, he saves five days.

Oliver Smith says, speak up, Alvin, we want to hear you. And I got to thinking. I listened to about eight or nine testimonies.

Does mine line up? You know, I was looking at self. And I was, I termed, I was in the fog for a day or so. Did I really believe right? The Monday afternoon, getting back home to Iowa, out in the farm, doing some work my father had given us to do.

I said, what happened last Monday night? I just received the Lord Jesus Christ. He died in my place. My sins were gone.

And a verse came to my mind that I don't know, I hadn't thought of it. He that hath the Son of Life, to as many as received Him, I have Him. He's mine.

I went upstairs that evening to go to bed and my brother was in his room, the light on there on the wall was the words, He that, it's right there too, He that hath the Son of Life. That sealed the joy. Wonderful to rest simply in the work of Christ through the Word of God, having received Him.

Now, rejoice every more. The joy of the Lord is our strength. Nehemiah said those words.

But the joy that is ongoing is recognizing that what we receive, the moment we're saved, is an eternal provision, eternal redemption. We have an eternal inheritance, an eternal relationship. We're children of God.

But now to Odom is Lord, and to recognize not only He is deserving of that honor, but to obey is to make known to Him the Lordship that He claims. Rejoice evermore. That's at all times.

You know, there's times when circumstances happen, and you wonder why this Lord? And yet He would have us to realize He goes along with us in those circumstances. The next one is pray without ceasing. That's not the suggestion that you're on your knees or in the attitude of prayer constantly.

It's the opportunity and realization at any moment of the 24-hour day. The throne of grace and our great high priest is there to listen to our desires. Touched with the feelings of our infirmities, and to think that while there were many that prayed for you and I long before we were saved, that there's so much that's involved in the prayer life.

As you read in the epistles, the needs of others, saints, the needs of those that are older, the needs have been reminded, you that are younger, and we're in those seasons that you were talking about, but I'm past the 80 mark. Can't help it. But here we go.

We have a life as we look forward yet to what time we have. It's one day at a time. And we can take to God those requests and desires, and those burdens and concerns of others, and the world out there with all its violence and unbelief, and the evidence of the darkness that we're in.

When you think of dear ones, and some of them we've known ourselves, went to Sunday school a few, and I don't know if ever they got saved, and some are gone. What a mercy when you think of yourself. And so we recognize the privilege of prayer, whether it's the souls of people, whether it's the needs of saints, whether it's the nation, and the circumstances.

We can turn to God in prayer. In everything give thanks, for this is a will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And that comes back to real issues sometimes.

Events happen, perhaps health problems, or situations with labor, family, whatever. Circumstances, trials will come. This is what the Lord told us.

John 16, in the world you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have come overcome the world. The trials will be there, and you'll see us through them. And thus we can give thanks.

One time we were leaving for Sioux City, was going to have, you know, Christopher and I was going to have the tent set up, which we did. I had the old Pontiac loaded trunk, the back seat, went out to get into the car, left rear tire was going flat. I had to take all the things out of the trunk to get to the spare.

My wife come out and says, well, you can be thankful that that didn't happen about 10 miles down the road, it was hot, you'd be on the side of the road in the sunshine, you can change your tire here right in the shade of the garage. Everything you give thanks. You see, the exhortation is this, while we do not know at times these trials, there is, as we learn from the Hebrew letter, lessons to be learned, and to be proven the grace of God and his care and kindness.

Moving on, quench not the spirit. Now we have in the Scriptures the thought of quenching the spirit or grieving. When God speaks to you of something to do and obey, the Spirit of God is directing your heart to truth, to honor, and to not only honor it by putting it into practice.

And there's where the joy comes. And as he's saying, quench not the spirit. When the spirit is grieved, it's the idea that you've done something personally and it needs to be confessed to God.

Thank God for an advocate for the Father, our great high priest. Despise not prophesying. It's the telling forth or setting forth of the Word of God.

Not only the gospel, but the ministry. And I've enjoyed the day, and I trust what I'm adding will be of a little help as well, encouragement. As we think of God's truth, we're in the end of the age.

The indifference abounds. God is going to complete his work and the church is going to be completed. If it isn't in our land, we're thankful for every soul, one even in a gathering and being reached in series.

It's to God's glory. But what a change, even in our lifetime, of the attitude of the people. As we think of prove all things, in other words, what the Scripture shows and you receive it with that commitment, with conviction to uphold what he has declared.

There's nothing that he has told us that we have to do to honor him, but what he'll give us the grace and the ability to do it. We need to be prepared just simply to love him in obedience. Prove all things, that is to recognize, thus saith the Lord.

I remember a young couple was asked. I was just there helping for two or three weeks that summer in Ontario, Wisconsin, about the third summer for meetings. They'd gotten saved.

They asked Mr. Elliott, what church should we go to? He says, go to the Scriptures and see what they did. And there in the book of the Acts and what was taught and what they began to practice. You know, it led them to leave what they had been associated with and were linked with a company gathered to his name.

Hold fast that which is good. He mentioned something in the word good at the end of verse 15 there. See that you render evil, that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men.

So now he's saying in verse 21, hold fast that which is good. We're exhorted to do good unto all men. We owe them the gospel, but we owe them a life that honors the gospel in order that we might be a little, as it were, a person pointing to Christ.

Verse 22, a stain from all appearance of evil. In other words, where we go, who we associate, people are always watching. I was impressed with that with a man who lived down the street from us in the first home we lived, not the first home in Applington.

He was always kind of curious. He'd be gone a little while in meetings perhaps, and did you save anyone this time? I have to remind him every time we couldn't save anyone, we couldn't save ourselves. But I observed he was always kind of watching.

He wasn't critical of some of the believers, but he took note. You never know who's looking at that life of yours, and we are to reflect the person that we're seeking to bear honor and glory to. A stain from all appearance of evil, and the very God of peace to sanctify you wholly.

He's calling us to be separate from the world, going forth unto him outside the camp, positional separation, but practical as well in life. And I pray God your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's not sinlessness, but when God has given us a word to honor, and we obey, we're not held accountable for that, as it's not the thought of blameless.

We've uphold what he's desired us. May the Lord bless with what's to follow, for his name's sake.