The Marks of Spiritual Progress

Was that there was such a great diversity of response to the message of the gospel of the kingdom as Jesus began to preach What he termed the gospel of the kingdom? There was many different responses some embraced what he was teaching and entered into a Saving relationship with Christ big their lives begin to be changed others made Momentary commitments and begin to follow him, but in a while they fell away As you know there were thousands of people who heard Christ and acted as though they were his disciples and yet on the day of Pentecost when the church was born there was merely a hundred and twenty people in another upper room who claimed to be his disciples and Were waiting according to his instructions for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit Why is there such great diversity of responses and why is it that some Respond to the gospel for a short time, but there are no lasting effects no lasting fruit How can we tell when the gospel is truly penetrated our hearts?

We actually have really come into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ What are the what are the signs of progress in our relationship with Christ? How can we tell when a church is truly has Christ Living within them and they are following him The beginning of the book of Revelation Jesus writes to Through John to seven different churches and warns him about many things and one of those things when he writes to the church at Leodicea is that they have a church, but Jesus is on the outside in fact, he's pictured there as knocking on the door that someone might open the door and let him into this church Well, we have a wonderful example of the power of the gospel in the life of a local church in the epistles of Thessalonians in first Thessalonians Paul writes as a result of having taken the gospel to Thessalonica and a group of people they're turning to Christ in faith a church being established But then a second letter is written because other things have taken place in this second letter Which is we're going to look at over the next few weeks second Thessalonians, but I want to give you the background of it You'll turn to Acts chapter 17.

This is Paul second missionary journey And as he takes the gospel as far as he can take it he ends up coming to Thessalonica Now he's had quite a few experiences in fact his common experiences he goes through it into a city Goes to the synagogue begins to teach Based upon the Old Testament what we call the Old Testament the scriptures that the Messiah that they were waiting for this Deliverer who is to come the anointed one the Christ is going to come but he must die and Be resurrected and it's through this Messiah that salvation and deliverance is going to come and then he Identifies that Christ as none other than Jesus of Nazareth and you know if you've read the book of Acts There were many different responses in most cases Paul ended up in in jail By the before he left the city because it was such a strong opposition By the Jews primarily in these cities as he preached the gospel and many Gentiles came to believe in a few Jews and Then he would move on to the next city and that's kind of how it went until he comes to Fessalonica in Acts 17 and notice what takes place here Chapter 17 verse one now when they had traveled through and Piff and Piffle and Piffle this I've never stumbled on that one before and Piffle this and Apollonia they came to Fessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews According to Paul's custom he went to them and for three Sabbath Three Saturdays.

That is the Sabbath the Saturday not Sunday Saturday is the Sabbath day we worship on the Lord's day But they worshiped on the Sabbath the seventh day the day that God celebrated as resting from all of his labors and creation We worship on Sunday because that's the day in which Jesus Came forth from the tomb having completed his work of the cross But he goes to the synagogue on Saturday and it says he reasoned with them for three Sabbaths for three weeks now Think about this for a second the gospel comes to Fessalonica this Greek city Paul comes and he begins to to preach the gospel in the synagogue and in the synagogue We're all these Jewish people who worship the God of Israel the father of our Lord Jesus Christ But there were many Gentiles there.

They're called God fears That is they are Gentiles who've not been circumcised But they have come to believe that this God of Israel is the true and living God And so they come to Sabbath worship and so in that context Paul is notice in verse three he is explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer And rise again from the dead Now how would he do that? Well, he preached the Old Testament scriptures In other words the apostles always preach Christ if you notice on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached the gospel in the day of Pentecost He preached from the Old Testament Let me give you an example turned back to Genesis chapter three Here's the beginning of the gospel in Genesis chapter three verse 15 Here is the beginning of this gospel of Christ the gospel of the kingdom the gospel of God That begins to be proclaimed after the fall And immediately after the fall God gives them a Promise some good news and that good news is found here in the midst of this curse Upon the serpent And notice what he says to the serpent just in verse 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed Well the seed of the woman then is described here as the one who's going to come and he's going to bruise The head of the serpent in other words.

He's going to defeat the serpent He's going to defeat this one who has caused humanity to be plunged into ruin and separated from God Here we have the first proclamation of the gospel Who is this seed of the woman was you begin to read through the Bible you discover that the seed of the woman is the seed of Abraham And you read a little further and you find out that the seed of Abraham is the seed of David You read a little further and you find out that the seed of David is the seed of Mary And here we have the fulfillment of this first promise that the seed of the woman is going to come And he is going to bring victory over Satan who has plunged the human race because of his temptation The human race has been plunged into alienation from God So Paul would preach the gospel from the Old Testament He may go to a passage like Isaiah 53 looked there for just a moment You notice as you read through the book of Acts that the Apostles when they preach the gospel the center of the gospel was always Not the death of Christ, but the resurrection of Christ now the resurrection of Christ assumes his death Obviously he was raised from the dead because he died But when you read the the apostles preaching the gospel at the center of the good news of salvation is Christ has been raised from the dead We have a Savior who has come back from the dead and who is able to save In Isaiah chapter 52 for example the gospel is preached in the Old Testament The servant of the Lord who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ the ultimate servant of the Lord This prophetic word is being spoken about him and it begins this way in Isaiah 52 verse 13 And this entire poetic presentation of the servant of the Lord goes all the way through chapter 53 Which you're quite familiar with and it begins with the resurrection Behold my servant will prosper he will be high and lift it up and greatly exalted He's going to be raised from the dead He's going to send to the right hand of the father on high and sit at his side Now after telling them about his prosperity after the resurrection and ascension and session at the right hand of the father He begins to describe his death And in chapter 53 we have 750 years before the event a detailed description of the death of Jesus Christ And not only a description of his death, but an interpretation of his death Why did he die?

He died as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins He stood in our place and suffered the penalty for our sins to set us free from the bondage that we were in because of sin So here we have the gospel and so the text tells us in Acts 17 that Paul went into the synagogue and he preached About the Christ the Messiah who was to come and he showed them in the Old Testament that the Messiah must die And then be raised from the dead and then he says this after proving this from the Old Testament He says this Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah he is the Christ he is the anointed one This is the one you have been waiting for who is the deliverer to come to set you free Now that's the message of the gospel now think of the context that he's preaching the sin He's preaching in a synagogue a Jewish synagogue where they worship Jehovah The God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has promised to send to Messiah And Paul a Jewish rabbi comes into that synagogue and begins to proclaim that the promised Messiah has come and his name is Jesus of Nazareth That was the gospel and notice the response that happened Verse four and some of them that is some of the Jews in the synagogue were persuaded in fact the leader of the synagogue is persuaded And they joined Paul and Silas along with a large number of the God fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women In other words, there was effects the gospel had effects that penetrated the hearts of a few of the Jewish people there And some of the Gentiles and even extended out to others outside the synagogue But notice what happens and this always happened when Paul preached the gospel in the synagogue and there was response It says in verse five, but the Jews becoming jealous The Jews becoming jealous.

They hear they had all these Gentiles coming to become a part of the synagogue and this guy comes along and says now let me tell you about Jesus of Nazareth who is the promised Messiah and you must believe on him And they begin to follow the teaching of Paul and it says jealousy rose up in their heart and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace They didn't mind using some wicked Gentiles to accomplish their purposes They formed a mob and set the city in an uproar and attacking the house of Jason They were seeking to bring them out to the people. They surround the The house of the leader of the synagogue. They want to bring him out and beat him They want to drive Paul out of the city When they did not find them that is Paul Silas and Timothy They begin dragging Jason in some brethren before the city authorities shouting these men who have upset the world have come here also And Jason has welcomed them and they are all I Contrary to the to the decrease of Caesar saying that there is another king Jesus See this is the offense There's another king Jesus So these Jews Begin to use this to try to bring down the Romans upon these Christian preachers upon these preachers of Jesus as the Christ But they understood that Paul was proclaiming that this Jesus is a king That this is God's king It was coming to the world to be the deliverer and the ruler the second Adam The first Adam were told in Romans chapter 5 blew it He fell he plunged the whole race this leader of the race plunges the whole race into alienation from God in under condemnation And now a second Adam has come and he is obeyed God perfectly in our stead The new man the new Israel the perfect man who is Completely and fully on the commandments of God and please God is the king And now this becomes the issue and you can see it was the issue in their lives are you going to obey the king And this is what the this is how the apostles preach the gospel The apostles didn't say ask Jesus into your heart But the apostles said was that God has sent Christ into the world He is the Messiah and he has been raised from the dead.

He is the lawful ruler over humanity Will you bow the knee to him? Will you come to him? He's the only one who can save you and he can save you because he died for sinners He's paid the penalty of your sin And yet they recognized that he was proclaiming that Jesus is the lawful king and so they used this against him To try to bring him Under the condemnation of the Romans who had a king Caesar And it says in verse 8 they stirred up the crowd and City of fish the city authorities who heard these things And when they had received the pledge from Jason and the others they released him The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away that night to Berea And when they arrived They went into the synagogue of the Jews here we go again As what Paul did every city he went to he goes into the synagogue of the Jews And the same thing happened to accept something different happens here and notice Now these were noble-minded these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica for they received the word with great eagerness Examining the scriptures they examined these texts that Paul was preaching that this was the Christ They begin to look at Isaiah and Genesis and the prophets and they begin to look and to see if what he was saying was really true Is this really what the Old Testament says about the Messiah that he would come and die and be raised from the dead?

And they discover that's exactly what the scriptures teach The examined the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so therefore many of them believed along with a number of prominent Greek women and men But when the Jews and here we go again when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also They came there as well agitating and stirring up the crowds Then immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as to see and Silas and Timothy remained there So Paul goes off by himself And now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible they left Well the story goes on and we discover that Paul is so concerned about these believers at Thessalonica These believers that he had brought the gospel through their three weeks old are perhaps a little bit longer than that in the Lord Not only that but they're in the midst of a people who are totally antagonistic to the gospel They have come to Christ.

They are fresh and new in the faith And they certainly are in danger of being intimidated by this opposition And so Paul is quite concerned. He wants to see them established He wants to make sure that their roots go down deep into Christ And that they really do understand the gospel and its implications And so he tries to get back to Thessalonica But we're told in first Thessalonians that he couldn't get back That Satan hindered him and he couldn't get back to them And so he has his emissaries there fallen a rather Silas and Timothy And he writes a letter from Corinth to them to establish them in the faith and that's the book of first Thessalonians Let me amazing thing about that letter is that Paul spends a lot of time Reiterating what he had taught them about the coming the second coming of Christ That Jesus Christ is coming again And they are to live in light of that second coming and hope of that second coming He wanted their hearts to be filled with hope based upon the promises of God And so he writes in the first letter and he clears up some things that they are confused about because by the time Paul writes to them Some of those who had come to faith in Christ had died Physically at least one person had and so they were confused I thought that Jesus was coming back and we are all going to enter into his glory And they're wondering what is going to happen to these believers in Christ who died before he comes back To bring in his glory and his full salvation And so Paul writes in the first Thessalonians and he tells them That those who sleep those who die in Christ Are not going to be hindered when Christ comes back.

They're going to be raised in the dead and enter into his glory Just as all of us who are alive and present when Jesus comes back But then there were some additional things to begin to happen. There was more persecution things got more severe Have you ever asked yourself how would you react to persecution? How do you think you would react to persecution if if this next week we begin to be persecuted Because we were followers of Christ in very real overt Physical Difficult ways How would you respond? Would you want to hide the fact that you're a Christian? Would you be a thinghearted Or would you be obnoxious You probably never met an obnoxious Christian There's a full spectrum isn't there of the way people respond to difficulties in the Christian life And so Paul writes the second letter of Thessalonians because he has in that group in Thessalonica those as this persecution increases some were faint-hearted Some were very faint-hearted in fact when Paul let the first letter back and tells them how happy he is That they have come to follow Christ and and how confident he is of their faith and that he Spreads the word about them everywhere in fact everywhere he goes people are telling him about how these people have turned to Christ And begin to follow him in very difficult circumstances in the midst of persecution But some of them are becoming faint-hearted because the persecution is getting more intense More pressures coming to bear I once talked to a lady at Shreklis Slovakian lady who oh this was years ago 25 years ago or so and she had lived through Step the second world war and she had lived through a period of time when the church became incredibly persecuted And she said it was amazing to see people flock out of the church when the difficulties came And then what was left was a A ridden it who truly believed in Christ Who were willing to suffer for him She said it was quite a purifying process This persecution And I suppose that's true.

I think it's purifying not only That it shows the truth from the false believer, but it also begins to refine the heart of the true believer And so these people he's concerned about them He begins to write to them in the second letter because he wants to encourage the faint-hearted Those who are being overwhelmed and they feel like they're not living up to what they ought to be in Christ They're questioning their salvation You know every preacher knows that when he preaches the Bible he's supposed to When he preaches the Bible it's four things are supposed to happen. He's supposed to teach doctrine He's supposed to to prove those who are in disobedience or unruly to correct them And to instruct them in righteousness That's what he's called to do And we all know that sometimes when we're reproving when we preach the Bible and it's as it is a portion of scripture a truth that is It's it confronts us.

It reprooses that there's some who are faint-hearted that begin to even question their own salvation when they're confronted about The gospel and its implications for their lives. They're not living up to And others are just the opposite. They're so overconfident That they don't need any evidence in their life that they are truly believers And Paul's facing that in this church. He's facing two groups of people as he writes the second letter some are so confident that they're unruly And others are faint-hearted small-sold Now in the first letter in chapter five verse 14 of first lasolonians. He says He he he instructs us that we are too in the church. We are to prove the unruly And we to encourage the faint-hearted And so that's what he does in second lasolonians He encourages the faint-hearted And he reproves the unruly What I've discovered in the churches and over the years Is that often People who need the reproof don't hear it.

They hear the encouragement and the people who need the encouragement don't hear the encouragement They hear the reproof But what Paul is doing here is that he is trying to bring home to the hearts of these people what they need And those who are faint-hearted who are Feeling like they're about to crumble under the persecution that they haven't been fateful to Christ because in their hearts They want to escape it And he wants to encourage them He wants to assure them that Christ has truly begun to work in their life that the evidence is clear He can see the evidence by the reports that have come back to him And he wants to approve those who are living an unruly life And in this case the unruliness was that there was some in that church who said Why should I work when there are all these other Christians who have so much money and are able to take care of me And Jesus is coming back.

So why should I waste my time going to work And so he reproves those people But he encourages the faint-hearted And he begins the letter by doing that very thing and notice this Let me read the first part of second Thessalonians chapter one Paul and Sylvanas that is Silas and Timothy To the church of the Thessalonians and God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ grace to you and peace From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ We ought always to get thanks to God for your brethren as is only fitting Because your faith is greatly enlarged I'd like you to stop and think and listen think about the words of Paul to these people these are people who feel like they're about to crumble That are feeling very unsure of themselves And are afraid that they're not going to be faithful And he says to them Because your faith is greatly enlarged And the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater Therefore we ourselves speak proudly of you Among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions Which you endure This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God For which indeed you are suffering For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you And to give relief to you who are afflicted into us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and planning fire Dealing out repribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glorious power When he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who have believed For our testimony to you was believed To this in also we pray for you always that our God will count you worthy And probably we can translate that that our God will make you worthy that he will work in your life in such a way that you will sense that this work is real indeed You will that he will make you worthy of your calling and fulfill every desire for goodness And the work of faith with power So that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you and you and him according to the grace of our God And the Lord Jesus Christ So here are these words of encouragement and later on and Chinese going to give the words of proof to those who run really And notice how he encourages them He encourages them by Telling them what's going to happen He encourages them by the word of Christ By the implications of the gospel the second coming of Christ is a part of the gospel message Every time in a possible piece of the gospel in the book of Acts He talks about the second coming of Christ and the day of judgment that this entire world is going to face It's a part of the good news message But this is the day of judgment coming.

There's a day of reckoning. This is the day when everything is going to be made right You know, there are those who believe in reincarnation and basically that you get a second third fourth fifth six hundredth chance to get it right And you go around again and again and again again and instead of you only go around once or get all the Gusta you can you go around many times so don't lose heart you'll get better the next time The fact is we could try we could go around a thousand Million times and we would never get it right according to the word of God Because what is wrong is we are alienated From the only one who can make us right And so Paul begins to tell them about the second coming You yes you're under persecution Yes, you're facing great difficulty.

Yes, some of you are suffering and maybe some of them have been Had died because of their faith But he says Christ is coming back and Christ is going to make everything right He's going to afflict those who afflict you and he's going to give you relief from your affliction You're going to enter into rest there's a day of rest coming And so it begins to encourage these faint-hearted people he gives these gospel promises And he wants to drive home to their heart to a fresh That you can believe the gospel That's what the apostles kept telling believers you can believe the gospel You can believe the gospel promises you may be in a situation now where You're you just are having such trouble believing that God is going to actually fulfill his promises He's actually going to do what he promises in the gospel You know Jesus promised the abundant life He promised to make your life full To characterize it by joy and Some people are wondering is he going to fulfill these promises and so Paul Begins to recount the gospel promises that Christ is coming And Christ is going to fulfill his promises.

He is going to give us rest The day of the Lord is coming And the second chapter is going to tell him don't believe the lies that tell you that the day of the Lord is already coming What you are experiencing is the judgment of God upon you There's a man you know in the Bay Area He's on the radio every day and it's telling us that the day of the Lord is already begun that we are in the tribulation Paul's this this is exactly what was going on Thessalonica the guy didn't have a radio broadcast But he was whoever this guy was are these people were they were telling these Thessalonikans you're in the day of the Lord This is the tribulation the church ages over That's what we're hearing on the radio today every day But know this what Paul does in the second chapter because you know we know we're not in the day of the Lord because here's what has to happen in order for the day of the Lord to be here and it hasn't happened Now make them soon You know when you have when you have the hottest spot in all the world in Israel and You have the entire world seeming to turn against the nation of Israel.

It's a pretty good sign That we're headed towards the end, isn't it? Now things may change 70% of the people the United States do not believe they're going to be peace between the Jews and the Arabs 70% The Bible says that in the last Conflagration when Jesus comes back it's going to be centered right there All the nations of the world are going to be are come against that one nation And Christ is going to come back. So we may be near the end It may not be long You know Paul advised us he says you know you should be sweetly reasonable With people you shouldn't demand your way Because Jesus is coming back And think of it if you just spend all your energy trying to get your way and trying to get things the way you want them to be and to be the controlling influence and all in your little world And then Jesus came back and ruined all your plans And so he says be sweetly reasonable Because Christ is coming back and so he begins to tell them and encourage them Here's this church.

They've less than six months Continued to be persecuted both by Jews and Gentiles in that city And the persecutors seem to be enjoying their prosperity and doing quite well and these Christians are suffering And they begin to wonder where is God's righteous judgment One of these promises is going to be fulfilled And others are telling them hey you're in the day of the Lord And so what Paul does is he gives him truth That's always the cure for false teaching It's always the cure when we don't have the hope of the gospel is to recount the promises of the gospel We're going to come around the Lord's table on a few minutes and you know what we do here is we We remember the covenant we've entered into We make the covenant all over again in a sense Because we celebrate the basis of that covenant the death of Jesus Christ for our sins This resurrection the fact that we are going to partake of this with him today He told him in Luke 22 When he said I I've been longing I've been anxious to take this this suffer with you Because I won't partake of it again until the kingdom I'll some hold that to be the millennial kingdom I think he's talking about he's partaking of it with us now In the future he will partake it with us physically we'll see him with our own eyes But he's here this morning and we come around this table It it causes us to remember this covenant we have entered into And that covenant you know what the covenant is the covenant is between the Father and the Son And the Son has completed all of his obligations The reason you are saved today is because Jesus is faithful He's fulfilled all the commandments of the Father for you He's been perfectly obedient And so because of your faith and your union with Christ God looks at you has been perfectly righteous and perfectly related to him because our Substitute Has obeyed him perfectly the covenant between the Father and the Son and the Father Has fulfilled his obligation in the covenant By responding to the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ and so we gather on this table.

We celebrate the covenant It's like remaking the covenant all over again We believe that Jesus has obeyed perfectly for us And so even when we gather today we can give God thanks for whatever he wants to give us today because it's all by grace Everything he gives us is by grace And so he's wanting to assure the hearts of these pain-hearted These baby Christians six months old in the Lord Suffering persecution like none of us have ever suffered And he encourages the pain-hearted By telling them I can't help but continually brag on you everywhere I go That's been hard to take when it he writes them and says I want you to know something everywhere I go Everywhere I go I brag about you About your faith About the fact that you're part of the family of God in fact, he says it's my sacred obligation to do that And Notice in verse three he says we ourselves And the idea there is we ourselves in contrast to you.

You're having doubts about your you're looking at yourself And you're seeing all these weaknesses and failures and shortcomings, but and you say I don't know for sure Are you going to make it? I don't know for sure And Paul says we ourselves in contrast to you are confident Because we see the signs of the gospel in your life As far as we are concerned your progress has been tremendous In fact so much that we boast about you in every church we go to Wouldn't it be great for somebody to say that about you Well, I want you to know that's exactly what I say when I go other places I brag on you because you are truly children of God Your faith in Jesus Christ has made you absolutely acceptable Because Christ is obeyed for you perfectly What is hanging over your head threat of judgment no John 336 says he who believes in a son has eternal life you does not believe does not have life with the wrath of God is hovering over him But he who believes in Christ has eternal life and you'll never enter enter into judgment you'll never enter into condemnation You are perfectly and completely accepted by God and therefore I can boast in your faith That you actually have come to the place where you've rested all your hope in Jesus Christ and nothing else Isn't that wonderful that we've come to that place and so he wants to remind them of that What's so great about them what made it fitting for Paul to get thanks to God and to boast to other churches about these people What are the marks of the gospel?

How did he know for sure they were they were truly followers of Christ What are the effects of God saving work that you can see in the lives of people See we're always looking at the wrong place we we go that we go to the scriptures and One of the things we do that's really damaging to us is that we rip the commandments For our life the ethical commands of scripture totally out of their context and we codify them And we say here are the rules of being a Christian. This is what you must do if you're doing these things You must be a Christian But what we're doing is we're totally distorting the gospel of Jesus Christ Every single command and scripture is tied to an indicative every imperative is tied to an indicative You know what an imperative indicative is all These kids who are taking grammar in school know what it is the difference in an imperative and indicative an indicative is a statement of reality This is what God has done And then the imperative follows therefore do this now we get that backwards We begin to think if I do this then this is what God will be for me The scriptures in the scriptures the pattern of the scriptures is this is what God has done therefore do this The reason we can worship this morning is because God's done something for us.

He started this The Bible says that he seeks for worshipers There has been a believer in unbelievers that the unbeliever has not yet come to believe what God has done for them They haven't rested their faith in a God who says I sent my son into the world to save the world By saving a people for my name Let me give you an example Ephesians the book of Ephesians six chapters Post three chapters indicative indicative indicative this is what God has done. Where does he start? He turned he fast Where does all this start starts with God for three chapters? He tells us what God has done And then he begins to give us imperatives now. This is what you should do But you know what we do is we pull those imperatives out of the context people read the imperatives husbands love your wives Wives submit to your husband fully rip from its context Because in the context the reason a husband is the love his wife is because Christ loved the church And he laid down his life for her why sure I love my wife because Christ loves the church because I'm loved Because I'm secure in Christ Therefore I'm free to love my wife and to lay down my life.

I'm free to even be willing to die for her wives submit to your husbands Can't rip that out of its context the context is the church submits to Christ because she has absolute confidence in Christ wives can submit to husbands because they have confidence in Christ Because they are so taken up with who Christ is that they're willing to submit to a fallible man because they want to glorify Jesus Christ Not because they want to glorify their husband But they want to glorify Jesus Christ They want to show the world what it means for Christ to love his church for an enforced church to submit to that of the church Every imperative in the scriptures Every single imperative in the scriptures flow out of who God is and what God has done If you don't know why you should do what you think you should do then you are falling short of the gospel You're not walking in line with the gospel If you don't know how this imperative flows out of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ then you need to go back give a little deeper and find out In fact all the risks for your life that you have and I know we all have it's a great there's a great variety here Believe me in this flock You all have different house rules some of you will wouldn't do this particular thing no matter what happens And other people have no problem with that thing at all and I'm not going to tell you what it is There's a million of them You know what's really important why why Why won't you do that And why don't you think Christians should do that and why do you do that and why do you think Christians should do that If you don't know then that sub Christian sub gospel that's not walking in line with the gospel The apostle Peter Refused to sit down and eat with uncircumcised Gentiles Because there were people influencing him and said if you're really holy you won't eat with these Gentiles Even though they're followers of Christ and Paul says to him you are acting inconsistently with the gospel of Jesus Christ He confronts him to the face the apostle Peter the one who was given the keys to the kingdom of God Why Because Peter wasn't living he wasn't doing what he was doing because of the gospel He was doing because people were putting pressure on him Because people were big and God was small in his eyes Why do you do what you do?

You see what Paul is wanting to drive home to the hearts of these people is what I see in you The world may not see but what I see in you is the effect of your relationship with Jesus Christ And these effects are wonderful notice what they are they aren't that they're living according to some Somebody's idea of the 36 things that all Christians must do But what they're doing is they're fulfilling the great command that the Jesus left us Notice in verses three and four we had always to give thanks to God for you brethren as is only fitting It's only right It's only the proper thing to do because your faith is greatly enlarged in the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater Please simple He says that in the midst of these circumstances you're in and some of you are hurting and some of you are sick some of you are experiencing great persecution but he says In your response to God in your response to one another and in your response to your circumstances You manifest the fact that the gospel has penetrated your heart Notice these three things in verses three and four your response to to God your response to one another and your response to your circumstances These are the evidence is that the gospel has penetrated your heart.

You have embraced Christ by faith He is your Lord you're not a perfect disciple and you're not going to live up to everybody else's expectations The God is delighted with you That makes a lot of people mad when when When they discover that God is delighted with people that they're not delighted with But that's what Paul says notice in response to God He says you're growing in faith in fact the word here growth means super growth Abundant growth. It's like a it's like you know, it's the weeds Uh, of course, I got a whole bunch of weeds. That's probably not as impressive to you, but I'm amazed at weeds How weeds grow phenomenal Super growth He says I see super growth in your faith And they continue to grow is what he's saying See that's the top priority Colossians two seven says this the most important thing about you is your faith in Jesus Christ Do you have more confidence in Christ today than you had five years ago?

Do you have more confidence in Jesus Christ today than you had Six months ago there only six months old in the Lord and since six months after they've come to faith He says your faith is still growing you have deeper confidence in Christ The gospel has more power over your life than it ever has How would you go about establishing a new believer in the faith You know what we tend to do we tend to think that the way you establish believers is to give them the rulebook And what what the New Testament says the way to establish believers is to Get them to increase in their faith and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ If I isolate the commandments of scripture from the word of Christ.

I'm not going to make people grow. I'm going to make legalists If all I do is give rules about life that I quote Christian rules, but I don't connect it to the word of Christ the gospel of Jesus Christ I will produce legalists. I won't produce growing increasing faith I have found I have discovered just in the last few months that the thing that produces faith in the lives of people is the word of God them being primarily Exposed to the word of Christ And not my little discipleship book I've written three discipleship books right about those little film the blank things And they're actually pretty good But they've never caused anybody to grow it drives me nuts But I if I can get somebody to read the book of Hebrews And the and the word of Christ begins to penetrate their heart.

I sit there and watch it And I didn't have anything to do with this the spirit of God is causing this person to grow It's an amazing phenomenon You know why because their faith is growing now they begin to obey Christ They begin to obey the commandments of Christ But when I isolate those commandments from the person of Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ all I get is either some really good legalists or some Washouts When you get somebody hooked up to Jesus Christ and they begin to hear the voice of Christ and the word of Christ And they hear his commandments. They say what John says his commandments are not burdensome And And when somebody says well, why don't you do that? I don't know. I don't want to I want to obey Christ John Piper Passers-and-Miniapolis on the greatest books says that The television is has destroyed more preachers in America than any other single thing And Television has destroyed more preachers than preachers than any other single thing in America What a statement Now he could have said That based upon his study of scripture he has convinced that it's a sin to watch TV or to own a TV.

He doesn't own a TV That just be legalism But for him to say that in my experience when I watch the lives of men who are in the ministry and TV is Is probably the thing that destroys most of them or keeps most of them from being effective as preachers of the gospel That has great influence over me And you know why because it's not it's not him giving me one of his commandments. It's him pointing a truth out to me I think it is a truth But the law that there's no place in scripture. I can go and say it's it's sin for me to own a TV. I own two TV. I own three TVs now My daughter's leaving now I get hurt But if somebody says to me you want to be more effective in the work of the gospel And stop wasting all that time Passively watching All this garbage spewed out into your consciousness and that's great impact on me By the way, my point here isn't to get you this stuff watching TV It's just to give you an example How different it is to try to produce legalists and produce people who to take hold of Christ And so what Paul does to these people?

He says I see super growth in you. I see your faith in Christ growing Yeah, you're being tested But that's how the New Testament says our faith is our faith grows. It's through testing You're brought into a situation. It's difficult for you. It's hard for you When somebody says you look this is what you should do if you're going to be obedient to Christ That's what you must do and it's hard for you. You don't want to do it You don't want to do it and so some Christians go oh don't worry about it. You know, you know, we don't want to be legalists here Oh, no, that's not the issue the issue is is this the word of Christ This is what Christ wants you to do Do you have faith in Christ? Can Christ take you through this if you obey him?

You trust him Or do you trust your own heart more than you trust Christ? Are you afraid if you obey Christ you're not going to get what you really want and need? Or do you trust Christ enough that what you need and what you will want is so much greater than what you can imagine and he's the only thing to give it to you And his word is because he loves you That he gives you these commands you see we tie the commandments to the commander The command giver Jesus Christ that changes everything the second thing he says about them here is in relation to one another You're increasing in love he says your your love grows even greater ongoing increasing in fact the word here is used of water reaching a flood stage You know the water increases until you just the point where everything's flooded it was used of irrigating a field that's the picture of it The love of Christ among you is growing in the midst of this persecution See he's not telling them how to get out from under persecution and difficult He's telling them that in the midst of the persecution your faith and love is growing They've flooded one another with love They were loving each other as they were being persecuted as things were tough and difficult and hard And the effects were word that the church demonstrates what it declares It demonstrates the gospel we can declare the gospel all day long.

I've heard the gospel of grace given in most ungraces kinds of ways I've given it that way myself But they were demonstrating what they were proclaiming Galatians 5 6 says Seven-cision or uncircumcision is nothing in the kingdom of Christ. It is faith working through love Faith working through love faith in Christ Faith in this one who is the heart of the gospel working through love for one another He says I can see the effects of the gospel in your life because your love for one another increased and grows Reaching flood stage This is the answer to Paul's prayer back in 1 Thessalonians where they would grow and increase in their love for one another and they were As he gets these reports back How can you tell when a church is increasing in love?

Well things like for example first time 317 says that we would make our resources available to needy saints That demonstrates the love of Christ when we have brothers and sisters around us who are in need and we Poor we lay down our life by giving them the resources they need to meet the needs that they have Or first-feeder for eight. It says every day of fences won't be destroying our fellowship Because you don't like my house rules and I don't like your house rules or you know like my opinions about Whatever The reason I keep pretending as though I'm a Democrat is just to make all your Republicans Mad because I want you to know you don't have to be a Republican to go to heaven You still don't think it's funny.

I can tell And we offend each other in many ways bible says if you don't offend anybody with your tongue you are really a mature person But the evidence that we're loving each other is when somebody does what you don't like they have an opinion you don't agree with You know there are things in their life you just don't like it And you don't really have any bible for it You know the fact is in the church in America today More people are led by their impulses and their feelings in which they assume they attribute to the spirit of God Then they do the word of God even when those feelings contradict the clear teachings of scripture But they don't feel like what the scripture teaches and so they believe what they feel like And So we get mad at other people because they don't feel the same way And the Peter says in first Peter 4 8 that when we that love covers a multitude of offenses We're gonna offend each other in a lot of different ways little things we say we don't even realize You probably had this happen where you've offended somebody but you said something you didn't even know it And six months later you found out this person's been angry with you for six months Because of what you said you can't even remember what you said or why you said it or what the context what But you see the love of Christ The evidence that the gospel is actively working in our hearts and we're growing as we forgive each other We let love cover and multitude of sins that means Look there's so many things.

I'm not even gonna pay attention to it doesn't make any difference whatsoever First Corinthians 13 says we won't be keeping a list of our brothers and sisters failures in shortcomings And you think well, I don't people list. You're an amazing though in that little computer of yours right up there How you have these 18 things that you can remember so well Have you ever noticed this that when you haven't forgiven somebody you can remember all the details of the last conversation you had of them But once you forgive them you can't remember It's not amazing. It's an amazing phenomena. You may not believe me. That's true Think about the person you still have a grudge with you're still angry with you can remember every single little word that you had with him and hot win What you should have said you didn't say You can rehearse it over and over again your mind and then because the love of Christ you just forgive and all of a sudden You forget and somebody says now.

What will you guys have a dispute about it here? Ah Yeah, I can't even remember I don't know See, we're not to remember them If we really love one another if we're manifesting the love of Christ John 335 says this is a mark of a true disciple of Jesus Christ That we love each other the way Christ loved this is Christ petty I mean, it is an amazing phenomena of our fallenness that I can be mad at you I can hold a grudge against you for something that Christ has forgiven me for in fact he forgives me for it continually And yet I can hold it against you Isn't that something? We really do need to do need to save your doing We really do need Christ to obeys the Father perfectly in our step And then the third thing he says about them is that in relation to their circumstances they are developing and perseverance Notice that in verse four.

Therefore we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance Perseverance means you continue to move in the right direction and do the right thing even though there is great pressure against you And he says in faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure you put up with Persecutions and afflictions persecutions are those external persecutions inflicted by people who are against you And afflictions are those pressures that you feel the tribulation just of a hardness of life Maybe it's increased because of these persecutions, but when the pressure is on you you can trust the man who's trusting God Nothing tests our faith nothing tests us like hard times when things don't go the way we want them to go when they go just the opposite You see perseverance is based on hope the reason perseverance manifests The gospel in your life is that perseverance is based on hope Perseverance is when you continue to do the right thing believe the right thing Love God like you should when things are going really bad And by you simply compromising the pressure will be off you think Perseverance is you stay out of the pressure you do the right thing and it's based on Hope in the first book of first Thessalonians first chapter first Thessalonians Paul says I praise God.

I constantly give God thanks for your Your the perseverance that's produced by hope Perseverance the ability to stay under pressure and do the right thing and not cave in comes out of hope What's hope hope is faith in the promises of God about the future What is God promised you're concerning the future When you're in the midst of really a great trial when you don't know what's going to happen things are bad You have a sick child or you are there's really great difficulty things aren't going the way that you had hoped and And all you put placed all of your your confidence in and things don't go that way How do you continue to do the right thing hope You persevere because of hope and hope is based on faith in God's promises about the future So how do you feed hope?

How is he going to how's he going to feed their hope How are we to feed hope and others the promises of God The promises of God When you hear the promises of God Fall says in Romans 5 the promises of the gospel will never put you to shame If you believe the promises of God you will never be put to shame You've probably put hope in people that have shamed you they've banned in you They didn't carry through and you and you feel a stupid and ashamed They've shamed you because you trusted them and they didn't come through But he says the the hope that comes to the gospel will never shame you Because God will fulfill his promises crisis faithful What are the promises of Christ? Well, I should ask you give me five promises My let me give you three of my favorites John 737 if anyone's thirsty.

They didn't come to me and drink You believe in me out of his belly with low rivers of living waters. That's a promise. That is a promise You'll fulfill his promise it'll give you satisfaction when you're sick when things are going bad When nothing's when when you're persecuted You'll give you joy a river that's what he's promised if you're believing in him Or Matthew 1128 come into me all you were weary of heavy laden and I'll give you rest I'll give you rest rest for your souls Come to me and rest in me in my work and my obedience to the Father and you'll find rest You'll enter into my rest. I've completed the work for you Yes, I believe in the gospel. It's believing that Jesus has done everything necessary for me to be saved It's not me believing.

I can do it if Jesus will help me. That's not the gospel The gospel is Christ has done it. Will you rest in his work? Will you enter into his work and rest? John 14 Jesus promised in John 14 that he would come to us in the person of the spirit that he would be with us. He's here I'll never lead you or forsake you I go to prepare place for you. He says in the first part of John 14 I've gone to prepare place for you. That's the whole plan of the kingdom of God. God his people in a place Jesus said I'm going to prepare a place for you so that where I am there you may be also Isn't it great to have a place? Isn't it wonderful to have a place? I mean just physically aren't some of you you take it for granted but some of you who don't own a home And you think man it would be a wonderful thing to have our own home have a place Are we as a church?

We want a place. You know, we want to build a building so we have our own place Well, that's part of the kingdom of God that God his people in a place and Jesus has gone to prepare place for us When we come to this communion table today where we're renewing the covenant in a real sense where we're rehearsing his faithfulness the faithfulness of Jesus Christ We're not rehearsing our faithfulness You know sometimes people think because the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11 if anybody takes the supper in an unworthy manner The judgment of God's going to come on him and we think well, man I've sinned 14 times this week how can I take communion? Well, that's why you should take communion I'm faithful means you don't believe these promises.

It means that you're not really trusting It means that you you don't really believe the truth of that these elements speak to The Jesus has shed his blood We drink of the fruit of the vine because Jesus shed his blood Guide a death under the judgment of God to pay for all of our sins And then he did it in total obedience to the Father so that I get credit for absolute complete total obedience to the commandments of God He closed me in the righteousness of of Christ Christ is a man God has become man The second Adam and he has led us in perfect obedience in a body To the point that he was hung on a tree nailed to a cross Why because he was obedient and I'm not There's so many things about my life that I want to be more obedient isn't that the way it is with YouTube But he's obeyed perfectly and so when I come to this table and I take I'm going to take that Cup I put my hand on so you won't think you have to drink the cup.

I lifted up This represents his body he became a man And he obeyed the Father perfectly for you He obeyed an absolute righteousness He had the right motive in obeying And he never failed he never failed to live up to perfect absolute obedience to the Father as a man And then he went to the cross And he took my place on the cross and my sins were placed upon him. He became sin for me My sin was put upon him and his blood was shed As the Father poured out his wrath on his own son to pay for my sins And he says this is the basis of my covenant I've provided a way for you to come into a relationship with God where you have a perfect standing because of your faith In Jesus Christ. That's what we celebrate We've entered into covenant and the covenant maker and the covenant keeper God the Father And God the Son And we enter in because we are united with Jesus The minute I'm going to pray in the minute