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Oh my God.
Maybe the mind of the Spirit of God to.
Take up the first chapter of First Thessalonians and I was thinking of our brother's address and.
In part of the second chapter.
Where you have.
One giving and the Thessalonians receiving and how they received and and the atmosphere of love found in those in that epistle, I.
One reading to my brother and might consider that.
The first chapter and maybe.
All first eight verses of chapter 2.
To consider that portion.
There's Thessalonians chapter one, and perhaps for now the 1St 8 verses of chapter 2. Would that be profitable?
First Thessalonians.
Paul and Sylvanus and Tumultius, 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. We give thanks to God always for you, all, making mention of you in our 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, and ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost.
So that ye were in samples to all that believe in Macedonia and IKEA.
Or from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia, but also in every place. Your faith to godward is spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turn to God from 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 for yourselves, brother, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain. But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully untreated, as you know, a Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God, with much contention.
For our exhortation was not of deceit.
Nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but, as we were allowed of God.
To be put in trust with the gospel. Even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time use we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness. God is witness, nor of men sought. We glory neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ, but we were gentle among you.
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Even as a nurse cherishes her children.
So being affectionately desires of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. Doug, would you read also Acts 1917, the 1St 9 verses, Act 17 one through 9.
X-17 one.
Now when they had passed through Antheus and Phyllis and Apollina, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead.
And that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Jews a great multitude, And of the chief women not a few. But the Jews, which believe not moved within me, took under them certain lewd fellows of the baser sword, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the House of Jason.
And sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, and cried, These that have turned the world upside down are come hit her also, whom Jason hath received. And these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus, And they troubled the city, and the rulers of the city.
When they heard these things and when they had taken security of Jason and the other, they let them go.
This was one of the first that Paul may have written and but it it also is.
Full of that first love that the assembly had, and it seems like we could consider it for our the stimulation and enlargement of our own heart, since our brother Don has been bringing before us, as we see the manner of the servants of Christ among those people, and the manner that they responded to the gospel preached to them, and so.
That's why I suggested this that.
Might be for our prophet in that way.
There were those two classes of people that we, as we read in the Acts that at Thessalonica there there were those unbelieving Jews, you know, it says of the Berean Jews that they were more noble than those at Thessalonica. But there was also that great multitude of the Greeks that believed, and in our verses we read that they received the word.
As it was in truth, the word of God. And here we have before our eyes portrayed the effect of the Word of God working without restraint in the lives of men and women of God. And it's something that we could covet in our own lives, this.
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Unshackled working of the word, and unhindered that as it's of.
Brought into our hearts and consciences, there is affection and holiness.
Developed in our lives and you just seems like it's beautiful to see that affection here in our verses.
It's interesting to see that here in the early history of the church, or shall I say earlier history of the church, this is the is, Henry said. It's probably the first epistle that Paul wrote, and in verse three it says 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 in the message to Ephesus. I believe it is.
In Revelation chapter 2, it speaks of the same thing without the qualifying.
Adjectives.
Oh, I was reading chapter two, one verse two of chapter 2. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them, which say they are apostles and are not, and has found them liars. Well, this is.
Probably.
60 plus or minus years later after he wrote. I don't mean 60, maybe 50 years after he wrote first Thessalonians that John wrote.
To the Ephesians in the Book of Revelation.
There is certainly a decline in the character of Christianity by that time.
The Church is failing. How much more has it failed since then? But.
In In the beginning of the history of the Church, we find this character of.
The Saints, at least in Thessalonica, their faith was their work was a work of faith.
Their labor was a labor of love and.
Patience of hope, so they had.
They had much to show for what they were, for the character that they were bearing, their hope, their faith and their patience. And then we see it declining half a century later now.
There is.
There is still faith and there's still hope and there's still patience today, but it's not what it was in those days, the days of Paul at Thessalonica.
This is the one church, is it not, in which the Church of which is in God the Father, then our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father. There were just babes in Christ to us, weren't they? One was thinking of that hymn that we sang.
Thou gave us an eternal love to him to bring us home to thee.
Through the divine all thought above, and so on in that past eternity, God.
The purpose of the desire of God was to have a people before him in glory, just like his own dear Son, the one who and whom he found all his delight. It was his desire.
And the Lord Jesus leaves the glory He comes down into this world in order to accomplish the work that would bring about the the perfect fulfillment of all the Father's purposes of love and grace.
It was the father's desire to have us.
In this before him.
And in that same glory with Christ, he has given us a life.
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And a nature.
Perfectly suited to the presence, to his presence, Olive, His desire is to have fellowship with us, and it is He's given us a life and a nature.
That is makes us capable of having fellowship with himself. And this is the desire of God. Well, here are some of those dear Saints.
Just a little few there were.
Down there at Thessalonica, saved by his grace, God had them marked out in that past eternity.
Just like he had you and me and all his own. Well, one day we're going to see those dear Saints Thessalonica.
And how much they cost the Apostle. But he could say what is our joy or crown of rejoicing.
Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ that is coming?
Those Thessalonians Saints are going to be his crown in that day, but here they are seen as as kept in God the Father. They are preserved and kept in in God the Father. It's a it's a Father who is was caring for them and taking care of them. And He's taking care of you and me and all his own today.
New believers in the Lord Jesus. I think it's been suggested that maybe there were six, maybe six weeks saved when the apostle wrote this epistle, and I've enjoyed that thought too in connection with in God the Father. It belongs to babes in first John chapter 2 That they know the Father, not beautiful, being brought into relationship with the Father.
An old brethren, what a tremendous thing to realize. The Father's love is towards us unchangeably. God has proved how much He loves us in a way that cannot be questioned at all any longer. That's the position you and I occupy now before God in Christ is in the Father's love.
Tremendous to to revel in the enjoyment of that we have a Father who loves us unconditionally.
John brought that out too, didn't he? He said. I write unto you, little children, because you have known the Father. But I was thinking too, as we read this portion, how it's nice to see the heart of the apostle come out here, because there's always a tenderness in the heart of the apostle towards his brethren. But I've enjoyed it, especially here, with these new converts, those who are newly saved and gathered to the Lord's name. He speaks of himself in the second chapter of an as a nurse.
And as a father in his desire for their good and blessing. When we read the life of the Apostle in the.
Book of the Acts we see that before he was saved, his whole zeal and his whole energy was to stamp out the name of Christ and persecute the Christians. But after he was saved on the Damascus road, and there was a work of grace in his own soul, then his whole zeal and energy and desire was that not only would souls be saved, but that they would go on in the good of what they had in Christianity, and that they would enter in in a deeper and fuller way.
To all that they had in the Father and in the Son. You get a similar thought expressed with the Apostle John when he wrote. He said, I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth. And her brother has already alluded to the end of the second chapter. To me, it's just as if Paul says, when I see you, Thessalonians at the judgment seat of Christ, and I see you get a rich reward for following the Lord and going on in the truth, he said, I'm going to rejoice. Well, brethren, it's a heart that we all need to covet. Do we have that shepherd's heart, that pastoral care for the Saints of God that would desire not only the salvation of souls, but that souls be nourished and cherished in the assembly and encouraged in the Lord? There's a lot to discourage today. And I appreciated Brother Dave suggesting that the 17th chapter of Acts be read because.
We might read that and say, well, with all the opposition, when the gospel went forth at Thessalonica, was there any blessing? We might wonder if that's all we had to go on, whether there'd really been a work there. But we turn over to this epistle and we find that there had been a work there. There had not only been souls saved, but now they were going on in the truth. Because when there's when there's opposition, it usually is an indication of a work of the spirit of God, because the enemy is right there to try and hinder the work and to discourage the and confuse the people of God.
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But here we find there was a great work. And, brethren, I know these aren't the days of Thessalonica. They're not the Apostolic days of the Church. But Brethren, the Spirit of God is still working. He's still saving souls. He's still gathering to his precious name. He's still preserving the feet of his Saints. And let's seek grace to encourage one another in the Lord. And to have that shepherd's heart and that pastoral care that would seek to nurture the people of God is so necessary in these last days.
Beautiful to see how the Apostle in the this book and in the next book two joins himself to two other servants of the Lord, Sylvanus, which is Silas and Timothy.
In his addressing these believers, and I think that's a mark of a real servant of God too, isn't it? That he's joins himself with others, he doesn't make himself the sole figure and that everything revolves around him.
That he recognizes that God uses other instruments for blessing. And brethren, we should rejoice when we see in any measure blessing being given through other instruments. God uses some instruments we might not.
Expect he might use sometimes he used a a donkey to reprove Valen. Then you might not expect that. But God uses whom he will, and I think it is for us to recognize when there is blessing through other instruments.
Still.
I think you see, Bob, a sad contrast with Saul the King Saul in the Old Testament because he was Jonathan was used one time to win a great victory in Israel. And Saul came along and tried to get the credit for himself. He wanted to be, shall I say, the center of attention and not to give the credit to another. And so I think what you say is very lovely because God has a path of faith for each one of us. But it's a wonderful thing when we can serve the Lord together. We often think of that verse being laborers together with God.
And that's true. It's as we labor in a corner of his vineyard, but we can do it together. And so I think you see this with the Apostle Paul. And later on he took others with him too, and he delighted to commend those that had a service. So it says in Galatians, let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. And I don't like to refer to myself, but I've often appreciated having another brother along.
Service for the Lord because often it's a balance where perhaps I don't feel I have.
Liberty or can carry out some function another can can carry that on as many. You know, I've often traveled with our brother Charlie Little, and I've appreciated him because he has that quiet pastoral care in the home and he's an excellent visitor. Where I feel myself sometimes I fall down in that department. And so I just say that to show how that God can often bring in a balance and give a fuller ministry and more liberty when we seek to go on and work with the people of God in that way.
Grace be unto you in peace from God our Father.
And the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what God desires for his each one of his own. And in the assembly piece and the grace beyond you in peace, and it flows down from heaven, well, it gives us something of the atmosphere of heaven, doesn't it? What a wonderful thing it'll be in that day when we were gathered home in the Father's presence. All the peace, the peace of that of that of the Father's house.
Oh, how wonderful it will be. God is the God of peace. He's spoken of a number of times in scriptures. God is the God of peace and we will enter into enjoy that peace. Well, we're not there yet, but we're on our way. But he would have us to in spirit to enter into and enjoy that what he is in himself as the God of peace. And it is this which through which by which we can go on through the the difficulties on the trials and the circum hard circumstances of life.
Peace of God. The peace of God which passeth all understanding what a blessed God we have is the God of peace. He's all love to us too. God is all love to us and there isn't anything that happens to us. Not a circumstance but it, but it's what is His love has ordered or allowed and it's all going to end in blessing.
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All right, Dave.
Wisdom is his name.
And he God is love.
And he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. So can't we trust him fully, fully trust him? Because omnipotence, all power is His, and wisdom and love are working for our blessing. There can't be anything to touch us any time of our life, but it's what's good for us.
I think it was a very nice brother Jennings, how you referred to those.
Contrasts in Revelation chapter 2 with Ephesus because, as you pointed out, the same words are used there, but no faith, no hope and no love.
What was the difference? No doubt in Ephesus they knew far more truth at that point.
Then the Thessalonians knew here they had had the benefit of the epistle to the Ephesians with, I suppose, the highest truth that God has ever given to man. And outwardly everything was going on well.
But the apostle lays his finger on the very root of the problem, doesn't he? Thou hast left thy first love.
The Thessalonians here were happy, and as someone has remarked, the Church was the happiest when it knew the least. What was it? Oh, it was Christ that was before them, as her brother Henry remarked, There was the freshness of first love. There was the freshness of joy in that blessed one. There was the hope of the Lord's coming mentioned in every chapter of this epistle in a slightly different way, slightly different viewpoint, but mentioned in every chapter. What was it?
Oh, it was Christ that was before them. And I suggest, and I know our dear brethren would agree with us, that what we need.
In our hearts is to have that blessed one before us. Do we need truth? Indeed we do. Indeed we do. And God wouldn't have given it to us in His word if it wasn't important. But I suggest that the Spirit of God never occupies you and me only with the truth, but rather with the One who is the truth. And then all truth is connected with Him, and with that blessed 1 The attraction to a person. And that's what they had here, didn't they? That's what brought the joy to their hearts, was the fact that Christ was before them the freshness of first love.
The freshness of the gospel, the freshness of that hope, and everything, of course, that flowed from that in their affections and in their joy. Well May God give us to know that in our souls not in any way, as some would say, to neglect the learning of more truth, not in any way to neglect the deeper things that God has given us all my know, but always to enjoy them in connection with that blessed one with whom God would connect them all.
God the Father just the fun things how that when the Lord.
Took those little children up in his arms. How a father loves to pick up his little children.
And maybe at the end of the day he comes home and picks them up in his arms and loves them and kisses them, and they're under the door to meet him. Father loves to have his children around himself. Well, when the blessed Lord was down here and there and that blessed, lonely man, he picked up those little children in his arms and he blessed them.
Well, he could say to the disciples, they said to him. Lord, show us the Father.
He says to them, Have I been so long time with you? He that hath seen me has seen the Father. They've seen him pick up those little children and love them and and bless them. And this, this is the Father revealed. This is the God and the Father that we have come to know.
And this is the one we have referred to here as as the Church of God which is in God the Father.
Our brother Bill mentioned that there was not a lot of knowledge, and others have brought that out. These were believers in the freshness of their early love of Christ. Brother Jennings at the beginning of the meeting reminded us of that sad condition that had happened in Ephesians. But you know, beloved brethren, there's something exceedingly lovely here when we look at the first chapter and the second verse and the third verse. And Paul gives thanks to God for their work of faith.
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Their labor of love and their patience of hope. And then, if we turn to the second epistle, written to these very same people, and again in the first chapter, we find these words again in the third verse of the first chapter of the second Epistle. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren at his meat, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of everyone of you toward each other aboundeth.
So that we ourselves glory in you and the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions.
Tribulations which he endured. Wasn't that a lovely encouragement that here were a group of Christians who we've already established didn't know very much but they didn't go down. They increased. They abounded. And so in the second epistle their love and their faith is exceeding and it's abounding and it's growing and beloved brethren that can encourage us Sometimes things get rather discouraging today and we see failure in ourselves and.
Unfortunately.
Sometimes we see failure in others, but here were those who were going through extreme pressures and persecutions and trials, and they were commended early.
As whether Bob pointed out, just a very short time after they'd been saved, perhaps. But then the second time Paul writes, he can even commend them further. They're growing. That's what the Lord wants for us, brethren, in these very darkest days is to attach words like abundant and exceeding to our faith and our love. And it can be even in the darkest of days in which we live.
I think that's good because, well, it's true that Ephesus had departed collectively from their first love, and that is a point of departure which collectively the church has never been fully restored to. In fact, I believe it's the point of all the failure that later comes in those epistles to the seven churches. But it is possible for a Christian individually to be in the enjoyment of first love. In fact, they ought to be in the enjoyment of that first love as we're occupied with Christ. But I would just say that we don't want to overlook verse 2 here because.
As all that we've been saying concerning the Thessalonian brethren is true, and we rejoice at their faith and love and hope and their service for Christ and so on. Yet as the Apostle Paul wrote to them, he said that he was continuing to pray for them. This turnover for similar thought to Philippians. I think it's good to see the context of this.
And you get it in a similar context in Philippians chapter one.
And verse 3.
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for you all making requests with joy. I think it's significant that the two times the Apostle speaks of specifically praying for the Saints in an assembly and as an assembly are on 2 occasions When the assemblies were going on very well. There was again a freshness at Philippi. They were going on well. There was a testimony in the gospel.
And so on. And Paul says I'm praying for you. He says the same thing here to the Thessalonian Brethren.
This was mentioned one time at an assembly and a sister came to me after and she said, you know, she said sometimes I feel bad when we come to the assembly prayer meeting because she said they pray for those who aren't, who aren't there, those who have perhaps become indifferent, those who are sick and have a special need and so on. But she said, I think it would be good if we prayed for those who are there, those who are going on for the Lord, those who have a desire to be at the assembly meetings and so on.
And I thought it was quite a rebuke because, brethren, I believe that we need, like the Apostle Paul to use prayer as a preventative measure. Sometimes we fail to pray for someone until they've got cold in their soul or some difficulty, or they're sick or they're in some real trial or circumstance. But maybe if we prayed for the Saints that are going on well and that are at the assembly meetings and for those assemblies that are going on in the freshness of first love and so on, perhaps it would prevent many things. And so I just point out here that the such was the heart of the heart of the Apostle Paul for these brethren that he said, I know you're going on well, but he said.
The, as it were, the enemy is going to be busy, and I'm going to pray for you that you'll be preserved by the God of all peace and by the Father that you have come to know.
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Real secret brethren, in our seeking to go on with the Lord in these days of ruin, in many places there are just a few. But the secret is looking up to God as the God of all grace. And that's why it's a beautiful grace be with be unto you in peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is unmerited favor. He gives brethren not because of the any worth or value or.
Or faithfulness on our part. He gives because he's a giving God.
And if we can just look up to him in that simplicity when we come together.
Remember meeting up with some believers way out in the back areas of Bolivia? They had met some missionary some time before and had gotten saved, but the missionary was just going through and.
So I asked him, do you have any meetings here? He said. And they said, no, we don't have any pastor here. We need a pastor, I said.
Do you know how to read? They said yes, we know how to read. Do you know how to pray? Yes, we know how to pray. But can't you get together and read the scriptures and simplicity? You don't have to explain it, just allow God to speak to you through the scriptures. And if there's that simplicity of looking up to God as a gracious God, oh how he loves to give and it doesn't matter.
Brethren, he uses the most insignificant things sometimes to minister to the need of his people. Mention sometimes the case of the boy with the lunch of five loaves and two fishes, and God used the Lord Jesus used that to feed 5000 people, and there were more leftover after they got done than they started with. That's the kind of God we have. And you might say, well, there's no gift in our meeting. There's nobody that really can explain the scriptures. That may be the case.
But what kind of a God do we have? We have a God that delights in giving, and so if we can just look up to him in simplicity and realize that God gives not because of what we are, but because of what he is, that's grace.
Perhaps what you say is borne out by two scriptures. In the end of Hebrews, we've been Speaking of the peace of God. But there you have the God of peace. And I think it's very beautiful to see how that when he calls us into into a position of blessing, he doesn't leave us to our own devices. He provides everything that's needed to go on in that place of blessing. And so he says here in Hebrews 13 and verse 20, now the God of peace that brought again from the dead.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Now notice the 21St verse.
This is the God of peace. Now make you perfect in every good work to do his will.
Working in you, that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen. It just confirms what you say, Brother Bob.
There's two, it says for you all.
He didn't say. Well, there's some of you I love, and some of you are kind of a little hard to love, so we'll have to leave you out.
But this true heart of a servant of Christ was a servant of Christ who loved every single one of the assembly. He didn't. He wasn't selective about it and said, well, I have my favorites because this brother goes on better and that sister has a nicer personality. But Paul was truly a reflection of the heart of Christ, and it was one that says as it says in verse two, we give thanks to God always for you all.
And where Jim read in Philippians 2, it says praying for you all with joy. The natural heart tends to have favorites and say, well, I kind of like this person, but I'm not so sure about that one. But not so with the Spirit of Christ in the heart of God. He loved all Ben, and he gave his son for all. And here we find that the Apostle Paul is a reflection of that he was.
For all the Saints in Thessalonica.
Should never narrow our hearts affections, any lesser sphere than all God's redeemed people. I was thinking of in Colossians chapter one how the Apostle Paul speaks in his desire for the believers. In the end of the chapter he says in in connection with Christ in you the hope of glory, verse 28, whom we preach.
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Warning every man and teaching every man.
In all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. How often it's happened to me, brethren?
Somebody.
Seems hard headed to me and so I just kind of give up on him.
But the Apostle Paul didn't give up.
Warning every man teaching every man in all wisdom. Why, to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Tremendous.
Their state in response to the apostle was such that it caused him great joy. He presents himself as a father to them with his own children. The end of verse 11 of the next chapter.