This is Monday morning, May the 7th, 1973,
in Richmond, Virginia.
Ministry is being given to Brother Stephen Kong.
You may please turn to the book of
Acts.
Acts, chapter 17.
We'll read from the first verse.
Acts, chapter 17, verse 1.
And having journeyed through Antipolis and Apollonia, they
came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of
the Jews.
And according to Paul's customs, he went in
among them, and on three stabbeth, risen with
them from the Scriptures, opening and laying down
that the Christ must have settled, and risen
up from among the dead, and that this
is the Christ, Jesus, whom I announce to
you.
And some of them believed, and joined themselves
to Paul and Silas, and of the Greeks
who worshipped, a great multitude, and of the
sheep women, not a few.
For the Jews, having been stirred up to
jealousy, and taken to themselves certain wicked men
of the lowest level, and having got a
crowd together, set the city in confusion, and
having beset the house of Jason, sought to
bring them out to the people, and not
having found them, dragged Jason and certain brethren
before the polytheists, calling out these men that
have set the world in tumult, or come
here also, whom Jason has received.
And these all do contrary to the decrees
of Caesar, saying that there is another king,
Jesus.
And they troubled the crowds and the polytheists,
when they heard these things, and having taken
security of Jason and the rest, they let
them go.
But the brethren immediately sent away in the
night Paul and Silas to Berea, who being
arrived, went away into the synagogue of the
Jews.
And these were no more noble than those
in Thessalonica, receiving the word with all readiness
of mind, daily searching the Scriptures, if these
things are so.
Therefore many from among them believed, and of
preaching women of the upper classes, and men
not a few.
But when the Jews from Thessalonica knew that
the word of God was announced in Berea
also by Paul, they came there also, stirring
up the crowd.
And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul
to go as to the sea.
But Silas and Timotheus are both there.
First Thessalonians.
First letter to the Thessalonians.
Chapter 1 Paul
and Silvanus and Timotheus to the assembly of
Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Grace to you and peace.
We give thanks to God always for you
all, making mention of you at our prayer,
remembering unceasingly your work of faith, and labor
of love, and enduring constancy of hope of
our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and
Father.
Knowing, brethren, beloved by God your election, for
our glad tidings were not with you in
word only, but also in power, and in
the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, even
as ye know what we were among you
for your faith.
And ye became our imitators, and of the
Lord, having accepted the word in much tribulation,
with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that
ye became models to all that believe in
Macedonia and Achaia.
For the word of the Lord sounded out
from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but in every place your faith which is
towards God has gone abroad, so that we
have no need to say anything, for they
themselves relate concerning us what entering in we
have to use, and how ye turn to
God from idols, to serve a living and
true God, and to await his Son from
the heavens, whom ye raise from among the
dead, Jesus our Deliverer from the coming rest.
That's all we will read this morning.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Lord, we commit thy word into thy hand,
and we ask that thou would bless thy
word, and make it very living and real
to all of us this morning.
Lord, we pray that thou will reveal thyself
afresh to us through thy word, because we
believe thou art the living word.
It is by thy word that we live.
Lord, we look to thee together in thy
precious name.
Amen.
We fellowship together in the recent days on
the letter of Paul to the Galatians.
The churches in Galatia were the churches that
were planted by the Apostle Paul in the
very beginning of his apostolic ministry.
Because you remember, when Barnabas and Paul and
three others, they were ministering unto the Lord
together in Antioch, the Holy Spirit said, set
apart Barnabas and Paul for the work that
I have appointed them.
So they went forth from Antioch.
They passed through Cyprus.
They came to the area of Galatia.
And there in these cities, such as Derbe,
Iconium, Lystra, God used Paul and Barnabas to
raise up churches in that area.
So we say the letter to the Galatians
is a letter written to the churches of
Paul's first love.
Because these were the fruits, first fruits, in
a sense, of his ministry.
That's the reason why he loved them so
much.
He was so much concerned with their spiritual
condition before God.
And that, in a way, explains the tone
of that letter.
Now this morning we would like to come
into the first and second letters of Paul
to the Thessalonians.
Now if the letter to the Galatians is
the letter to the churches of Paul's first
love, then these two letters to the Thessalonians
are the letters written to the churches in
their first love.
As a matter of fact, these two letters
were written by Paul before he wrote any
other letter in the Bible.
These two letters were the two first written
letters by the apostle Paul to the churches.
And he wrote these letters to the churches
in their first love.
Why?
Because these churches were just raised up.
They were very, very young, infants.
And yet the church in Thessalonica was in
her first love towards God.
Before we enter into these two letters, we
have to know a little bit of the
background because that will help us to appreciate
these letters.
In Paul's second missionary trip, he passed through
Galatia and Phrygia.
And he had the intention of going to
Asia, the Roman province of Asia, to preach
the gospel.
But he was forbidden by the spirit of
Christ.
So he was thinking of going to Bithynia
on the north, another Roman province, densely populated,
but again the Holy Spirit forbade him.
So he could not go to the south
nor to the north.
He traveled on to the west until they
came to Turin.
That was at the sea coast.
And there was the Aegean Sea beyond that.
So while Paul and his companions came to
Turin, that was the end of the road.
The sea was before them.
And at that very moment, Paul was given
a vision.
A Macedonian was calling for help.
Come over and help us.
So the next morning when Paul related his
dream, his vision, to his fellow companions, they
all felt it was the Lord.
They called them to Macedonia.
So they crossed the Aegean Sea and they
came to Macedonia.
Brothers and sisters, this was a tremendous move.
And it was a move initiated by the
Holy Spirit.
So far as Paul was concerned, he was
thinking all the time of laboring in Asia.
He had never thought of going to Europe.
The gospel was not preached in all Asia
yet.
There was such great need in Asia.
So many people in Asia.
So he was thinking of going to the
Roman province of Asia or the Roman province
of Byznia and all these were in Asia,
in the continent of Asia.
Humanly speaking, we were thinking the gospel should
be preached to all continents of Asia first
and then you go to another continent.
And probably that was what Paul was thinking
about.
And yet the Holy Spirit forbade him to
preach in Asia or Byznia.
Now, not because God did not want the
gospel to be preached in these places, but
God had His plan.
And the Spirit of God, as it were,
restrained him from going south or north and
constrained him to go west and then called
him to cross the sea to Europe.
That was the first time the gospel came
to Europe.
So you know, it was a tremendous step.
Not planned by man, but initiated by the
Spirit of God.
When they came into Europe, the first place
they came to was Macedonia and the first
city was Philippi.
We know that Macedonia was the birthplace of
Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great, he conquered the world of
his time.
And in history we are told that Alexander
wept because there was no more world to
conquer.
Alexander was not only a military genius, but
he was a great thinker.
He had a dream.
He dreamed of uniting the East and the
West into one world under Greek culture.
Now that was Alexander's dream.
He seemed to be able to fulfill his
dream so far as military power was concerned.
He conquered the world of his time.
But he failed in his dream to see
the world becoming one under one culture.
When Paul stepped on the soil of Macedonia,
we can imagine what went through his mind.
This was the land of Alexander the Great.
Philippi was called after the name of Alexander's
father, Philip.
Thessalonica was a city called after the name
of Alexander's half-sister.
The whole place will remind Paul of the
great empire, of the great dream of Alexander
the Great.
And Paul was one who was familiar with
history and he couldn't help but
think the Lord had now called him to
Europe.
To the very first place of Alexander the
Great.
What was God doing?
What was God's plan?
God not came into the mind of Paul
that God was doing something to him.
Alexander started in Macedonia trying to unite the
world into one.
But here you will find God was going
to do a great work.
He was going to build his own kingdom.
And his own kingdom shall cover the whole
world.
Uniting the East and the West under Christ.
A tremendous vision.
It must have come to Paul at that
time.
God was not doing just some piece work.
God was doing a great work.
He was building his own kingdom.
The kingdom of God.
Not the kingdom of this world.
But the kingdom of the heavens.
And he was going to bring all people
throughout the world into one.
Under the king.
And Paul was called into that world.
A tremendous responsibility.
And this was done with great opposition.
When God is building his kingdom you will
find Satan will be very bitter.
He will not allow the kingdom of God
to expand throughout the world without opposition.
He has usurped this world long enough.
And he is most unwilling to give up.
And that's the reason when the gospel was
preached in Asia and now in Europe you
will find Paul met great...
It was not an easy job.
In the city of Citiphi when God began
to use Paul to preach the gospel you
will find Paul and Silas were thrown into
a fangirl.
At midnight they were able to sing and
to pray to God.
And even the gates of the prison were
all open.
The earth was shaken.
Spiritually this was true.
The church in Citiphi was razed out.
Well, they were asked by the authority to
leave the city.
So they left.
And they came to Thessalonica.
Thessalonica was a great city.
It was a seaport.
It was on the way of the Roman
road from the east.
An important city.
So Paul and his companions they came to
Thessalonica.
Now he was there only for three Saturdays.
In other words, less than a month.
As was his custom.
When he arrived in Thessalonica there was a
synagogue in Thessalonica.
You know in Citiphi there was no synagogue.
Only some Jewish women with some papalites they
had a paragraph by the river outside the
city.
Because there were not even ten leisurely leisure
men to establish a synagogue.
You know according to the Jewish custom if
you have ten leisure men that is to
say ten men Jewish men who were willing
to devote some time for religion for Judaism
then you can have a synagogue.
But in Citiphi there were not even ten
leisure men.
So there was only a presidium.
Women's presidium.
And Paul joined them and there you find
Paul started to preach the gospel.
But in the city of Thessalonica it was
different.
There were many Jews in that city.
And there were synagogues.
So Paul went to the synagogue on the
Saturday.
And there he reasoned with them according to
the scripture.
Proved to them that Jesus is the Christ.
And the power of God was with Paul.
And some Jewish people believed.
And many of the Greeks who attended the
Jewish synagogue they believed.
And many women Greek and women believed.
For three Saturdays Paul entered into the synagogue
and preached Jesus Christ.
And many came to the synagogue.
Think of that.
Only three Saturdays.
Paul was in Thessalonica less than a month.
And yet within that month the power of
God was so manifest.
The gospel was preached in such power.
And the Holy Spirit worked in such a
way that many came to the Lord.
Many came to the Lord.
And that aroused the jealousy of the Jews.
You know the Jews felt that they were
God's people.
God's blessings were all theirs.
God certainly would not bless the Gentiles.
If any Gentile desired to get God's blessings
he had to become a Jew first.
He had to be apocalyptic.
Circumcised.
And then he would receive God's blessings.
But here you find God's blessing came upon
the Greeks.
The Gentiles.
In such abundance they couldn't stand it.
They themselves would not believe.
And yet they were jealous when they saw
other people believe.
So they used the very mean way to
probably bribe some gangsters in the city.
You know you have gangsters everywhere.
So they probably bribed some gangsters in the
city and tried to start up a riot.
So the whole city was in tumult.
They began to cry out and say And
out here come some people that preached.
Something that announced something that was against Caesar.
They declared there is another king.
In other words make it a political crime.
So they came.
Trying to see Paul.
But Paul was not there.
So they took Jason.
Evidently Paul lived in the house of Jason.
So they took Jason.
And after they got security from Jason they
let him free.
Because according to the Roman customs there must
be a trial.
And the brethren there seeing such a confusion
they were concerned with the life of Paul.
So they sent Paul away.
They sent Paul away to Berea.
And then the people in Thessalonica the Jews
in Thessalonica heard what was happening in Berea.
So they came again and stirred up trouble.
So the brethren in Berea sent Paul to
Athens.
Now brothers and sisters the first letter to
the Thessalonians were written very shortly not too
long after Paul left Thessalonica.
From Athens he was so concerned with the
saints in Thessalonica.
They were new believers.
And they were being persecuted by their own
people.
Think of that.
And infant church left without any care humanly
speaking.
And being persecuted by their own countrymen.
No wonder Paul's heart was concerned.
Because Paul was like a father and like
a mother to the saints in Thessalonica.
So he sent Timothy back.
To Thessalonica.
To see whether they could stand the persecution.
And also trying to encourage them and strengthen
them in the Lord.
And then Paul traveled on to Corinth.
And most likely Timothy came back from his
visit to Thessalonica.
And he met Paul in Corinth.
And there he told Paul of what God
had done in Thessalonica.
The young church was able to say not
only to say but their testimony had reached
out throughout Macedonia and even Achaia.
And you know Paul's heart was so grateful
to the Lord.
He was so touched.
And he felt he wanted to write a
letter to the church in Thessalonica.
So he sent the first letter to the
Thessalonians.
On the one hand to express his gratitude
to God.
That the young church stood through the trial.
On the other hand he used the opportunity
to encourage them.
To comfort them.
To strengthen them that they might go on
even increasing love and interest.
In a way Paul was exercising his gift
of prophecy towards the church in Thessalonica.
You know according to 1 Corinthians 14 the
gift of prophecy is to encourage to exhort
and to comfort.
So here you find Paul being exigent to
go there in person.
He ministered to them so and that was
how the first letter to the Thessalonians was
written.
And shortly after the first letter he wrote
the second letter.
Because he had something more to say.
So this letter followed one after another.
And these were the first two letters written
by Paul to the church.
Now brothers and sisters the church in Thessalonica
was a young church.
It is not a mature church.
A young church.
You cannot expect maturity there.
But there is one thing that stands out
with that church.
And because it is young and yet it
is full of freshness.
You sense a freshness with that church.
In a sense you know in this letter
to the Thessalonians you may not find the
word life there.
And yet after you have read you cannot
help but be impressed with one thing and
that is life.
There is life in that church.
And that life is very living and very
fresh.
Again we will say it is not noted
for maturity.
Because maturity takes time.
This church is not as mature as the
church in Philippi.
Later on Paul wrote a letter to the
Philippians and you know after many years the
church in Philippi was much more mature.
But still you find even this church that
exists only a few months there was such
a demonstration of life in them.
And you know nothing is better than that.
The gospel.
In preaching the gospel it is like planting
seeds.
Not of corruptible seeds but of incorruptible seeds.
In other words when the gospel is preached
in the power of the Holy Spirit and
the gospel is received as the word of
God the result is life.
Now preaching the gospel is not preaching some
teaching or doctrine.
It is not just telling some story or
history.
If the gospel is preached rightly and is
received properly it results in life.
It is the life of Christ that comes
to those who believe.
And here in Thessalonica Paul says when he
preached the gospel it was not in the
wisdom of man but in the power of
God.
And they received the gospel as the word
of God not as the word of man.
And the result is life.
The church in Thessalonica is not by life.
New life.
How do we know there is life there?
This life is evidence in three ways.
Number one Paul said you
turn to God from Isaac.
That's the first evidence of life.
Turning to God from Isaac.
Number two you serve a living and true
God.
You serve God.
Number three you awake God's Son from the
heaven.
You awake for God's Son from the heaven.
So here you find these three evidences of
life.
They turn to God from idols in a
sense the past.
They serve a true and living God the
present.
They awake for the coming of Christ.
Whenever there is life in an individual or
in the church you will find these three
things always are present.
These are things you know many of those
who believe who are already attending the synagogue.
Why?
Well these were Greeks.
These were Gentiles.
But evidently you know they were tired of
idol worship because the Gentiles, the heathens they
worshipped many gods.
They worshipped idols.
But the Jews worshipped only one god.
And many Gentiles at that time they were
tired of idol worship.
They were attracted by the purity of Judaism.
And because of that many of the Greeks
they attended synagogue.
They were seekers after truth.
Even though they were already attending synagogue.
They did not go to their temples and
worship their idols.
But instead they came to the synagogue to
worship God.
And yet strictly speaking they could not be
said as having turned to God from idols.
They were not worshipping idols anymore.
They were worshipping God in the synagogue.
But without receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ
without being born again they were still not
turning to God from idols.
After they went but really no.
Why?
Because God must be worshipped in the synagogue.
Even though outwardly they did not worship those
idols made of clay or even silver or
wood or gold.
And yet idols cover much more than that.
Behind idol worship there is Satan who is
receiving all worship.
Even though these people do not worship the
idols and yet they were still under the
bondage.
They had not yet been delivered from the
power of darkness.
Even though they tried to worship God in
the synagogue yet their spirits were dead.
They couldn't worship God.
They couldn't.
Brothers and sisters only when we truly believe
in the gospel of Jesus Christ then we
are translated out of the power of darkness
into the kingdom of the son of God's
love.
That is turning to God from idols.
They were delivered from the power of darkness
and they could worship God in spirit and
truth.
Now that's evidence of life.
Another thing.
People can even worship God in an idolatrous
way.
Now how do you do that?
You remember the story with the children of
Israel.
When Moses was receiving the law on the
mountain they asked Aaron to make them a
god because God is a spirit.
They cannot see him.
They want a god that they can see
and touch and feel.
So they asked that we do not know
what happened to Moses.
We cannot see God.
We can't see Moses.
But now Moses disappears.
So make us a god to lead us.
And you remember Aaron made a golden calf.
And they called the golden calf the God
who led them out of Egypt.
They called the golden calf God who led
them out of Egypt.
But that's idolatry.
That's idolatry.
You do not need to worship another idol.
An idol, another god.
Even people want to worship God but in
an idolatrous way.
It is idolatry.
Stephen in Acts chapter 7 as he was
witnessing to the council that judged him he
quoted the prophet.
You know, through the wilderness journey what did
the people of Israel carry through the wilderness?
Of course, the tabernacle.
As they travel in the wilderness they always
carry the tabernacle with the ark and all
the other things.
But Stephen in witnessing to the council he
quoted the prophet and said Do you carry
the tabernacle of God?
No.
You carry the tent of Molot, your God.
Physically, do they carry the tent of Molot?
No.
But spiritually even the tabernacle of God was
considered by the prophet as the tent of
Molot.
Think of that.
You can turn the things of God into
a thing of the devil.
You can call it God and yet it
was Satan that was receiving the worship.
Brothers and sisters it is not simply a
matter of going to a heathen temple and
worship an idol made of wood and things
like that called by another name.
We can even make idolatry out of God.
And this happened in the history of Israel
all the time.
You remember Gerald Wood?
After he separated from the two tribes and
set up the kingdom the nation of Israel
he was afraid because all the tribes still
went to Jerusalem to worship God and if
that was the case he was afraid one
day they would rejoin the nation of Judah.
So he set up two golden towers one
in Bethel and one in Dan and said
these are the gods these are the gods
that we worship a contest a contest using
the name of God setting up priesthood out
of the not of the tribes of Levi
and imitating everything that was going on in
Jerusalem but it was a contest in the
name of God but it was a contest
and because of this sin the nation of
Israel finally was taken into captivity.
So God is insistent unless a person has
really turned to Christ unless a person is
really born again even if he is not
worshiping idols even if he goes to synagogue
to worship God before God he is still
under the power he hasn't turned from idols
to God yet but after he has believed
in the Lord Jesus there is life in
him and this life is evident in really
turning away from idols now you are no
longer under the power of God that's
the past but then the present after they
turned to God it was more than a
turning to God in turning to God they
began to serve the truth and me you
cannot turn to God without serving him Israel
was saved delivered out of Egypt why?
God said let my people go that they
may serve me turning to God and serving
God are one look how people today turn
to God faith but how many are serving
God we are not free we have never
been free before we know the Lord we
serve we serve Satan the God of this
world we think we are serving ourselves you
know but anyone who serves himself is serving
Satan because he is behind everything we may
not know it but one day we will
wake up but after we are saved whom
do we serve?
we serve God we serve the true and
living God but serving God is different because
serving the world serving ourselves serving Satan you
will find it was hard very hard but
serving God is a service that comes out
of love we love to serve him we
serve him in many different ways nevertheless we
all serve him so one brother says our
profession is serving God all the other jobs
they are sidelines whether you are a housewife
whether you are an office worker or whether
you are a student studying these are sidelines
but our main purpose living on this earth
is to serve God we are here to
serve the true and living God now that's
evidence of life if any person professes to
be saved and yet he has no desire
to serve God and he does not serve
God you wonder whether there is life the
very life that we have received desires to
serve the one who so loved us and
gave himself and these Thessalonians even if they
were just saved only a few months and
yet their service to God was evident all
day they loved to serve in many ways
and not only that but there was a
third evidence they awaited the sun from heaven
if there is life there is bound to
be that waiting for Christ to come they
are waiting for the Lord to come they
do not know too much and if you
read the first and second letter to the
Thessalonians you will find that they do not
know too much about second coming they still
had problems about second coming because they did
not know too much they were very young
and yet they were waiting for the Lord
to come that is the important thing you
know today we know too much probably about
second coming and yet we are not ready
but with these people they did not have
too much knowledge and yet their heart was
waiting for the Lord to come first love
first love they were so loved they were
so touched by the love of Christ they
loved Christ so much they longed to see
Him first love and these three things were
our evidences of life turning from idols to
God turning to a living God and waiting
the coming of the Lord we mock the
church in her first love and then because
there were these three evidences they produced some
practical results and the practical results are found
here in chapter 1 verse 3 Paul said
remembering unceasingly your work of faith and labor
of love and enduring constancy of hope of
our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and
Father you see life is very practical life
is not a theory life is not something
just we talk about if there is life
it will come forth in practical expression in
demonstration and with the young church in Thessalonica
you find this life was demonstrated in three
ways work of faith labor of love endurance
of hope you have faith you have love
you have hope and Paul in 1 Corinthians
13 says three things are most essential today
and that is faith hope and love and
the young church has all these things they
have work they have labor they have endurance
but the work, the labor, the endurance are
the result of faith, love and hope not
just work not just labor not just endurance
but these works are works of faith these
labors are labors of love and these endurances
were endurances of hope when you come to
the book of Revelation chapter 2 you remember
our Lord Jesus as he looked upon the
church in Ephesus that was what he said
chapter 2 verse 2 of Revelation I know
thy work and thy labor and thy endurance
verse 4 but I have again seen that
thou hast left thy first love you see
the church in Ephesus at the end of
the first century they still continue having work
and labor and endurance thus the inward power
was gone they have left their first love
work became work labor became just labor and
endurance became just endurance outwardly all these things
were still continuing on and yet the inward
motivation the inward power was gone and because
of that the Lord said I am again
the Lord was not looking for work he
was not looking for labor he was not
looking for endurance he was looking for faith
for love and for hope and if there
is faith there is love and there is
hope there will be work and labor and
endurance so brothers and sisters you know it
is very easy for us to have work
without faith labor without love and endurance without
hope now when you are doing that who
is doing that?
you are doing that it is not a
life of Christ manifested in the Bible you
will find even our work had to be
repainted in Hebrew it is said repaint
of our dead work what is dead work?
why dead work?
of course these dead works do not refer
to sinning doing bad things no these dead
works refer to doing good things we try
to do some good work well that is
the common notion you know whenever you are
convicted in your conscience you are uneasy in
your conscience immediately your reaction will be let
me do some good things good deeds and
we are doing some good deeds well that
should cover it up you know and these
are dead works dead works why dead works?
because done by that person spiritually there God
is not looking for dead works but God
is looking for works of faith works of
faith we often try to tell people not
by works but by the grace of God
if you want to be saved and you
try to do it to do works your
works will not justify you your works will
not save you because all your works are
like filthy rags before God no use you
have to repent of your good works you
should not depend on your good works you
know many people are not saved because they
have faith confidence in their good works so
they don't need to believe in Christ they
want to save themselves but we need to
repent of our dead works and see that
we have to trust the Lord for our
salvation but that doesn't mean after we are
saved there shouldn't be good works because the
decisions have to be it says very very
very very plainly that for we are saved
by grace through faith and this not of
yourself it is God's gift not of the
principle of works that no man by birth
but the following sentence for we are his
workmanship having been created in Christ Jesus for
good works which God has before prepared that
we shall walk what's the difference?
the difference is before we are saved our
works are dead works we think we can
be justified by doing these works but after
we are saved we are recreated in Christ
for good works that God has before prepared
for us to walk in in other words
now after we have life in us there
will be the works the works of faith
because James says faith without works is dead
how do you know you have faith?
how are you to prove your faith?
you prove your faith by faith is perfected
in other words out of faith there will
be a works not just works but it
is the works of Abraham and James used
two illustrations one Abraham the other Rahab Abraham
because he believed in God therefore he offered
Isaac that's the works consecration brothers and sisters
if you really believe in the Lord you
must follow the consecration if you say you
believe in the Lord and yet you you
will not present your body a living sacrifice
to the Lord how do people know you
have faith?
not that you will be justified by your
works but if you have faith out of
your faith in the Lord Jesus there must
be that dedication that consecration to the Lord
that is the works of faith we have
we have believed in God and what happened?
you remember she separated herself from her own
people and she joined herself with God's people
she hanged that scarlet thread on the window
proving that she had separated herself from her
own people she now joins with God's people
brothers and sisters that's the works of faith
if you believe and yet you are not
separated from the world where is your faith?
how do you prove your faith?
you are not of the world how do
you prove it?
separated so these are works of faith remember
not just works but these are works of
faith God is not very interested in just
works but it is works of faith it
is living works not that works but living
works and that is the practical way to
express life then again labor of love not
just labor you can labor yourself to death
if there is no love within you or
if it is not motivated by love there
is nothing in the sight of you the
Lord said I am against you you have
labored but you have left your first love
the beast is alone they love the Lord
and out of their love they labor you
know love labors you cannot really love and
don't do nothing that's impossible impossible if you
really love your eyes are wide open to
see the need your heart is wide open
to sympathize and your hands are always ready
to help you cannot help it the mothers
because of their love how they labor with
their children you cannot help it and yet
it is a labor of love there is
no compressor it is not forced but it
is voluntary willingly and joyfully now that labor
of love you know sometimes we murmur a
little bit you know it's too much you
know but if there is love there you
don't you don't feel it that way labor
of love and then endurance of love you
can bite your teeth and endure simply by
your strong will I'm going to endure it
no matter how hard I'm going to endure
it you are doing it it is not
life it is life it is endurance of
life why is it that you have the
power to endure it is because you know
what you endure will work towards your conformity
to the image of Christ and brothers and
sisters if you see that you are able
to endure these Thessalonians were able to endure
persecution why?
because they knew these persecutions only increase their
hope could not take their hope away increase
their hope they have the hope of seeing
the Lord and to be like him and
these were used of God to perfect them
so here you'll find with this young church
there were these practical demonstrations of life brothers
and sisters do we have work labor and
endurance but are these coming out from faith
love and hope life life before God nothing
is more important than life without life you
can do these things but these are false
imitated they cannot go to eternity God is
looking for life and when there is life
there will be these things if there are
not these things then life is questionable and
yet the emphasis is still on life so
the whole letter to the Thessalonians emphasizes one
point and that is life freshness of life
the life there was very fresh and living
not deep yet but fresh and living so
may the Lord use these to help us
you know that we may not get old
aged you know get all these wrinkles aged
but we may always be young with the
freshness of his life and that is what
the Lord is looking for the freshness of
his life in all of us now with
this young church we say because he is
young but we can be young all the
time our Lord is never aged our God
is the living God so may the Lord
keep us in the freshness of his life
all our days shall we pray our Heavenly
Father we do thank thee for this young
church that manifests such life freshness of life
to us O Lord how much satisfied must
be thy heart we pray that we may
never get old but we may always live
in the freshness of thy life and we
pray that our life may be manifested in
our work in our labor and in our
enduring for thou thyself may be glorified we
ask in the name of our Lord Jesus
Amen