In Our Lord Jesus Christ

Introduction: The Three Crown Jewels and Their Context

0:05 In our study of this paragraph that extends from verse 2 or begins at verse 2 and goes down through to verse 10, we have in a very real sense what we could call Paul's prayer of thanks to God for what he discerned at the work of God in the Christians there at Thessalonica. And at the very top of the list of things for which he gives thanks to God, in verse 3 we have what I have called the three crown jewels in the diadem of Christian virtue. A Christian is one into whose life God has worked many wonderful virtues by the grace and power of his spirit. And yet it would seem in the thinking of the Apostle Paul that the three crown virtues amongst all of those which God works in his people are those mentioned here in verse 3, faith, love, and hope. The same Paul who said in 1 Corinthians 13, Now abideth faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. We have gone into some detail in studying each of these separately, the work of faith. Paul was grateful that these people had a living trust in the living Savior that made them produce works of gratitude, works done not to earn salvation, but as the fruit of a salvation received by, faith.

1:33 And he was thankful for their labor of love. They had a love to the triune God that made them engage in sacrificing arduous labor and toil for the cause of his kingdom. And then last week we looked together at the phrase, patience of hope. They had a hope, which is not a mere wishful desire as we use the word hope, but a confident expectation of promised blessing.

1:58 And that expectation produced endurance, bearing up under the pressures to which they, they were subjected as young Christians. Now this morning, we want to look at the last two phrases in verse 3, which are very instructive. This work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope, Paul says, were in our Lord Jesus Christ and in the sight of God and our Father. And in these two little phrases, we have what we might call in the first place, the object and cause, of these virtues.

The Object and Cause of Virtues: 'In Our Lord Jesus Christ'

2:35 Towards what or whom is this love directed? This faith, this hope. Paul would tell us in this phrase, that it was directed towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, who causes these virtues to be found?

2:50 Why, they have it there.

2:57 They are in the little phrase, in the sight of God and our Father, the sincerity and the climate in which these graces and virtues, were exercised. Were they something that the Thessalonians just put on, as it were, to impress the Apostle? No, he says, they were not in the sight of men, but they were exercised as in the sight of God. They were exercised sincerely and in the climate of God consciousness.

3:24 And so these little phrases are by no means, just sort of thrown in there for the sake of filler. Those who work in the newspaper business, they have to have a lot of filler. You finish, you finish an article and you have just maybe six lines left and you got to put something in so you don't have a blank space. Well, you see, Paul didn't have that problem.

3:43 He didn't find when he composed his letter that just before he turned the page, he had two little lines, a space at the bottom and sort of stuck these in. These answer a very vital question. If you have in you today these virtues, the work of faith, the labor of love and the patience of hope, where do they come from? What will sustain them?

4:05 That's the question. Paul answers. If you seem to have them, are they mere sham virtues or are they the real product? Are they a cheap imitation or are they the genuine issue?

4:16 Well, we can find out if we understand what he means in the little phrase, in the sight of God and our Father. So let's take the two phrases in that order. First of all, the object and the cause of these virtues. Now you have a little problem in the structure of this in the original.

4:35 It could mean, notice verse 3, it could mean that Paul is saying this, I remember without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in the Lord Jesus, the in the Lord Jesus phrase referring only to their patience of hope. This then would be a commentary on the kind of hope they had. It was in the Lord Jesus. But in the original, the word in is not there.

5:02 It really should be of the Lord Jesus. And it's so structured, that it could well refer to the entire passage. Let me illustrate. I might say to you, I am thankful to the congregation for the love, the patience and grace which it has shown to me and my wife.

5:22 Well you see, the shown to me and my wife applies to all of those things for which we are thankful, not just to the last one. So we could read the passage this way, remembering without ceasing your work of faith of the Lord Jesus, and labor of love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and patience of hope of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I prefer this latter sense for this basic reason. Wherever the Apostle Paul has opportunity to trace the virtues found in a Christian back to their ultimate source, he delights to trace them back to the Lord Jesus as the ultimate source, the fountainhead from which all of these virtues flow down into the life of the world.

Christ as the Exclusive Object of True Virtues

6:06 You remember last week in reading the first chapter of Philippians, Paul prayed for these Philippian Christians that they might be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which he says, are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. For you see, if they are by man, then the praise is of man. But if they are by the Lord Jesus, then the glory and praise for them must be attributed to the God who has granted them to us by his Son. And so in this passage, the Apostle Paul is attributing to the Lord Jesus the fact that there was some work of faith, there was some labor of love, and there was some patience of hope. He was the source, he was the object of these virtues. Now let's consider them in that order. Christ is the object of all faith and love and hope which is commendable in the sight of God.

7:04 There's a little song that is popular, at least in some circles, I've heard it sung. Have faith, hope, and charity. That's the way to live successfully. How do I know?

7:16 The Bible tells me so. Now that's a cute little song. The trouble is, it doesn't have an ounce of good theology in it. You see, what that little ditty is saying is that if you have faith, it doesn't matter who's the object of that faith, but if you have faith, and if you have hope, it doesn't matter who the object of that hope is, and charity, love, just so long as you have those three things, that's the way to live successfully.

7:39 How do I know? The Bible tells me so. Well, the Bible never told you that having faith, hope, and charity is the way to live successfully. Well, you see, the emphasis of the Bible is not upon faith, hope, and love as entities in themselves, but the emphasis of the Bible is upon faith, hope, and love in terms of their object.

8:01 And the thing that caused hope, the thing that caused Paul to rejoice, is that these people had a work of faith, faith which had as its object the Lord Jesus Christ. Just faith of itself is no virtue. It's not some kind of a magical kind of potion that if you take it or have it, all will be well. You see, you can talk about faith and hope and love in any circle today, and people think, well, isn't he nice?

8:28 He's religious. This is what our presidents do, and our heads of state. And I even heard a well-known preacher bringing a message to some kind of a civic club, and he talked about faith in God and hope and all the rest. Well, you see, everybody will embrace this and love it and say, isn't that nice?

8:44 He's religious. But you see, the emphasis of the Bible is what's the object of your faith? Faith in some kind of nebulous God or faith in the God revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Love to something that you conceive to be God or love to the God revealed in Jesus Christ.

9:02 Hope, just sort of a wishful desire that everything's going to turn out all right in the end, or hope that is rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ? With these Thessalonians, their faith, their love, and their hope was had as its object the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's just consider them briefly individually. Faith, their faith was of or in the Lord Jesus Christ.

9:26 How do we know this is true? Well, if you turn back to Acts 17, and find the account of the founding of this church, we read that when Paul came among them, he didn't come with some kind of a psychological emphasis, just saying, well, if you just have faith in something other than yourself, all will be well. You sort of need to trust a higher being. I think that's what Alcoholics Anonymous uses as its term.

9:50 You've got to have faith in a higher being. Now, is that what Paul preached? You've got to have faith in some higher being? No, listen to his words.

9:57 Verse 2 and 3, Paul, as his manner was, went into unto them three Sabbath days, reasoned out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preached unto you, is Christ, and some of them believed. What did they believe? They did not have a nebulous kind of faith in a nebulous concept of a nebulous God. No, no.

10:23 Their faith was rooted in the God revealed in Jesus Christ, the Christ of history, who lived, who died, who rose again, and who was the only way by which sinners could find acceptance with God. Therefore, their faith, which Paul commends, had as its object that unique person, the God-man Christ Jesus, set forth in the Scripture, and that Christ, who by His work upon the cross and the open tomb and His presence at the right hand of the Father, was the only Savior of sinners. For notice, he says, it was faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving to Him His full official title, which is a beautiful summary of all that He is and all that He does for sinners. He is Jesus, the God-man. He is Christ, the promised Messiah, prophet, priest, and king, who would teach us by His word, who would die for us and shed His blood for our forgiveness, who would rise and be the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is Christ, He is Jesus, the God-man, Christ, the promised Messiah, prophet, priest, and king.

11:33 He is the Lord who sits upon a throne, and Paul says, we give thanks to God, remembering without ceasing your work of faith of or in the Lord Jesus Christ. Their faith was an intelligent, theological faith, and that's the only kind of faith that God will ever command. Now, what is your faith? Is that your faith this morning?

11:55 Son to our hearts, to our hearts. And so their love was directed to the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't directed to just Jesus. There's a lot of sentimental love to Jesus.

12:07 We like to think of the man of Galilee, the stranger of Galilee. It wasn't directed just to Jesus, and I'm always suspicious of groups and movements that talk about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and don't give Him His full title. It wasn't just to the Christ. They weren't just preoccupied with the fulfillment of prophecy in Jesus as the anointed one.

12:30 Their love was directed to the Lord Jesus Christ. They loved the one who sat upon a throne, who came to that throne by way of a cradle, of a cross and a tomb. They loved Him for who He was. They loved Him for what He had done as the anointed Messiah.

12:48 Paul says he gave thanks to God for their work of faith because it was faith which had as its object the Lord Jesus. He gave thanks for their labor of love for that love had as its object the Lord Jesus, and then their hope had as its object the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't a confident expectation in the betterment of humanity. It was a hope that was in and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ as the Author and Source of Virtues

13:16 There was that confidence that at His coming and His triumphant coming there would then be a full realization of all that He had purchased by His blood. But not only is the Lord Jesus the object of these virtues, He's the cause of them. Where did their faith come from? And literally, if you were to translate this as it's given in the original, it would be translated this way.

13:39 Your work of faith of the Lord Jesus Christ or from the Lord Jesus Christ. And that phrase is found other places as well. He is not only the object of our faith, He is the author of it. Doesn't the scripture say in Hebrews, looking unto Christ, the author and the finisher of us.

14:01 Didn't we read this morning in Philippians, for unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe. It is given to believe as well as to suffer. And so the Lord Jesus is the author of our faith. As Paul mentions the blessings that come to believers in Ephesians 1, he says that all spirit and spiritual blessings are stored up in Christ and they flow out of Him.

14:26 And even the faith by which we embrace Him is one of those blessings that comes as His gift. Love has as its source the Lord Jesus. We love Him because He first loved us. The fruit of the Spirit is love.

14:43 Our love to Him is the result of the working of His Spirit in our hearts. Hope, Romans 15, 13, God calls you to abound in hope by the power of the Spirit. The Spirit taking out of the fullness of Christ works even this matter of hope in the heart of the believer. Oh, do you see the emphasis of the Apostle Paul as he looks at the Thessalonians and sees the virtues of faith that works, love that toils, hope that endures.

15:14 He in no way is patting these people on the back. What he's doing is is simply delineating those things which were the evidences to him that the Lord Jesus Christ had become the great object of these virtues and not only the object but the very cause of them so that unto Christ and Christ alone would be ascribed all the honor and all the praise. Now I think the application of this principle is very clear. Let me say a word to you this morning who are not savingly joined to Christ.

Application: Examining the Source of Your Virtues

15:46 Old Adam, human nature unaided by the Spirit can produce some cheap imitations of these virtues. We can produce something that may look like the work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope but they're nothing but empty hollow imitations if they are severed from a vital relationship to Christ. I want to ask a very simple question of you this morning. Will you listen carefully?

16:13 Strip away everything in your life, all the activity, all the religious activities, and everything else until there's nothing left but that work that you do out of a living faith in a living Lord, that work which springs out of a true love for the living Christ, and that endurance that is rooted in a steadfast confidence that He is coming again. Now you see, a Christian's got a lot left if you strip away everything but that. So, he realizes, yes, I am laboring because my confidence is in Him, because I love Him, because I know that He is coming, I endure. Because I love Him, I toil. Because I trust Him, I work. Reading a very searching little book for the refreshing of my own soul, this moving and being occupied with packing boxes and slapping paint on walls over the past three weeks has taken its toll on my own soul.

17:26 And I felt so barren as I thought of preparing for the Lord's Day, I just had to forget sermons and ask God to do a work of reviving in my own spirit. And I was reading a book written by a preacher for the specific state that I found myself in, a state of declension, of a waning of devotion to Christ. And he said something in this book that struck me and I want to share it with you this morning. Listen carefully.

17:51 Perhaps nothing forms a more certain criterion of the state of the soul than this. We would be willing to test a man's religion both as to its nature and its growth by his reply to this question, What think ye of Christ? Does his blood daily moisten the root of thy profession? Is his righteousness that which exalts thee out of and above thyself and daily gives thee free and near access to God?

18:12 Is the sweetness of his love the sweetness of his love of his love of his love of his love of his love of his love of his love of his love the sweetness of his love much in thy heart and the fragrance of his name much upon thy lips? Are thy corruptions daily carried to his grace thy guilt to his blood thy trials to his heart? In a word is Jesus the substance of thy life the source of thy sanctification the springhead of thy joys the theme of thy song the one glorious object of thine eye upon which thine eye is the mark toward which thou art ever pressing Be not offended reader if we remark that a professing man may talk well of Christ may do homage to his name and build up his cause and promote his kingdom and yet rest short of having Christ in his heart the hope of glory It's not talking about religion or ministers or churches nor an outward zeal for their prosperity that either constitutes or indicates a truly spiritual man in our day passes current for the life of God in the soul Nothing forms a more certain criterion of the state of the soul than this What think ye of Christ? Is he the source of your joys the object of your love of your devotion? That's the question I had to ask myself

19:42 afresh and I had to make the painful answer O Lord somehow the work of the hand has weaned the heart from devotion to the person of Christ You see Paul would never have rejoiced if these people were simply busy simply loving and simply hoping It was the fact that their working was a work of faith in Christ Their laboring was a labor of love to Christ Their hope was one which caused them to endure because it was a hope of Christ He was the central object in the life of every Christian and I speak to myself we must remind ourselves that these virtues thrive and develop only as they are fed by the streams of vital attachment to Christ Am I weak in faith weak in love weak in hope then I must go to Christ and as I view him as he is revealed in the scriptures coming from the presence of the Father of the tomb triumphant going back to the right hand of the majesty on high as I view the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed in the scriptures faith is strengthened and when faith is strengthened I'll find myself working more fervently as I think of him and his love to me my love to him

21:12 will burn with a deeper glow and out of that will become a willingness to toil for his kingdom in the confidence that all will be well at his coming but if you cut away vital heart attachment to Christ contemplation of the person and work of Christ you have as it were dried up the streams from which these virtues flow I confess to you this morning that at times those streams are awfully awfully low in my own life and how futile it is to put new water into the streams you can't do it you can't correct the stream by concentrating on the stream we've got to go back to the place from whence all this flows vital heart attachment to the Lord Jesus that's why God gives us the Sabbath one of the reasons this Lord's day that we might in this day as we come together pray oh Lord for fresh revelations of Christ oh Lord in Christ new faith in Christ and as God grants those then the work the labor the endurance will be the blessed byproducts now we must hurry on to the second thought and we'll just spend a few minutes on it in the little phrase of the Lord Jesus or in the Lord Jesus we have the object and the source of these virtues

The Sincerity and Climate of Virtues: 'In the Sight of God and Our Father'

22:41 and in the last phrase before God and our Father we have what I have called the sincerity and the climate of these virtues now again you have a problem what does this little phrase refer to some say it could refer to Paul's prayer saying in verse 3 remembering without ceasing before God your work of faith they would say then that Paul just sort of stuck this on at the end to tell them that where he remembered was in the place of prayer others would say well it's just a general statement of God's omniscience all that they did their work of faith labor of love was beneath the eye of God God saw it God took recognition of it Psalm 139 he knows our down sitting our uprising or there's a third possibility and I believe this is the proper interpretation what he's saying is that this work of faith this labor of love and patience of hope not only had the Lord Jesus as their object and source but the consciousness of the presence of God created in these very virtues a true sincerity and in the hearts of these people it's what gave them that desire to continue in them the fact that they were living in the sight of God and their Father now these virtues were not produced for the eye of men but in the sight of God

24:11 remember our Lord in the sermon in the mount said don't be like those Pharisees what they did the Pharisees what they do they do to be seen with men what you do you should do for one reason remember thy Father which seeth in secret thy Father which seeth in secret giving praying fasting our Lord emphasizes three times the concern of the true Christian is the Father seeth that's what concerns me the Father seeth that we preachers do to tell people the state of our souls were necessary we who've been on the way a while need it you get a reputation for being rather spiritual and they do rightly so then all you do is keep up your reputation you don't care about the reality of the thing just so long as your reputation is maintained Paul said no the work of faith labor of love and patience of hope have you not yet ever gone into the dark of however you might have been before a man would ever have been able to see the light in the darkness which he saw in his face

25:39 it was not a sign of god no it was a sign of god but when God saw that man truly turns to God he then seeks to live as in the sight of God and that thought is not a burden to him it's a great delight that's just another way of describing the fear of God what is the fear of God the scripture says in Acts 9 31 that this disciples walked in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost we're told in 2nd Corinthians 7 1 to perfect holiness in the fear of God Ephesians 5 21 submit to one another in the fear of God Hebrews 12 28 says we're to serve God with reverence and godly fear 1st Peter 1 17 declares that we're to pass the time of our sojourning in fear what is the fear of God notice the little phrase he says in the sight of God and our father you see that fear is not the fear that we should have if God is not our father through Jesus Christ if we're out of God we're not out of God we're not out of God we're not out of God Outside of Jesus Christ, the fear that we should have of God should be one of pure dread. The psalmist says, who knoweth the power of thine anger?

26:57 If you're here this morning not savingly joined to Christ, you ought to fear God with a holy dread. For He's a God of justice and wrath and anger. And yet, blessed be His name, He pleads and exhorts and entreats, flee from the wrath to come by coming to His Son. But this is the fear that a child of God has.

27:19 It's walking in the sight of God and our Father. It is that blessed, godly fear which regards Him as our Father through Jesus Christ. And yet He's still our God, even though He's our Father. And with all His rights to our absolute devotion, to the love of the whole heart, mind, soul and strength, He is our God. He is the end of our existence.

27:42 He should be the object of our desire. He should be the source of our delight. He is our God. But He is not a God against us in His wrath.

27:51 But He's the God who is for us as our Father through Jesus Christ. Now, to walk as in His sight is to walk in the fear of God. To have a constant regard to His demands, to His glory, to His will, to His purposes. And that's what's delighted the heart of the Apostle Paul.

28:10 That these young Christians had learned to walk in the sight of God. And our thoughts. Now, that's entirely opposite to man by nature. For Romans 3.18 says that natural man, there's no fear of God before their eyes.

28:25 If they have any thoughts of being in the sight of God, they want to dismiss those thoughts. They want a dull conscience. They want to stifle every remembrance that all that I am is open and naked before the eyes of Him with whom I have to do. But to a Christian, this is a delight.

Living in the Fear of God as Our Father

28:40 Do you find it a delight to cultivate the consciousness of God? Wherever you are, whatever you're doing. I had someone speak to me last week. He said, you know, I just can't get God out of my mind.

28:51 Everywhere I go, as though that was something bad. I felt like saying, well, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. If what you're doing, you want to be doing in your sight, the only time that's bad is when you're trying to cheat on it.

29:04 You get away with something. Then it's a haunting thought. Is that right? That's a haunting thought.

29:11 You see, the child who's doing the things that please his father, he's never bothered that his father might be looking out the window. He's kind of proud that his father cares enough to watch it. Daddy, look at this. Mommy, look at that.

29:25 You know how children are. Now, if they're doing something they shouldn't, they look around to see, make sure daddy and mommy are looking. They don't want to do that in the sight of the father or mother. And so the true child of God, he cherishes the thought of the presence of God, the eye of God upon him.

29:43 And that becomes one of the governing principles of his life. Like Joseph, when he was being seduced by Potiphar's wife, he said, how can I do this thing and sin against God?

29:54 Oh, Potiphar may not know. My relatives may not know. They're hundreds of miles away.

30:00 But I'm living in the sight of God. I'm living in his sight. How can I? I'm conscious of his eye.

30:06 And this became one of the governing principles in the life of Joseph that kept him in that totally heathen society with no other influences external. But there was that internal influence of the fear of God. Do you have that? Do you seek to exercise and live, exercise these virtues and live as in the sight of God and our Father?

Application: The Freedom of Living Before God Alone

30:29 That was the thing that brought delight to the heart of the Apostle Paul, that they had this work of faith, this labor of love and patience of hope, not merely in the sight of the elders of the assembly, so that when one of the pastors was coming to visit, why you got to all the best literature out and put it on top of the table, and you quick-clicked, and you quick-clipped off the television set that had some kind of garbage coming over it, and the wife and husband all of a sudden got all sweet and lovey where they'd just been pouring out some words that had a lot of bile in them. No. I've seen that. Oh, we want to have a work of faith, labor of love, patience of hope, in the sight of the pastor.

31:07 Or in the sight of our fellow Christians. Not in the sight of what we've talked about. Is that your life? You see, that's what the day of judgment will reveal, that nothing mattered but what he saw.

31:19 That's basically a definition of the day of judgment. A revelation of the truth that nothing mattered but what he saw. That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, 5, Judge nothing until the Lord come, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of men's hearts. Then shall every man have his praise of God.

31:42 You know, a wonderful release comes when you're seeking to live in the sight of God and the Father. Tell my wife about a certain thing we were deciding to do the other night, just last night, and she said, but honey, so and so thinks this, I don't care what they think. Who cares? Are your motives right in doing it? Yes.

31:59 Do you feel it's right? Yes. Well, then you do it. God knows, you know, hallelujah, nothing else matters.

32:04 That's wonderful freedom. Do you know that freedom? I pity the person who's got to all the time, as it were, be playing to the crowd. Well, I've got to impress this one that I'm this, and I've got to impress this one that I'm not this, and I've got, oh, that's terrible bondage.

32:18 Whom the Son sets free is free indeed, and one of the most blessed liberties with which Christ sets a man free is to live in the sight of God and the Father, and if He smiles, let the world frown. Wonderful release. Do you know that release? You young people, do you know that?

32:37 Who cares what your buddies say? Is it pleasing in God's sight? That's what's important, isn't it? Does it please Him?

32:43 That's what's important. Who cares? Oh, what blessed release. I trust we know it.

32:49 If we do, then it's because God in His grace has worked the same virtues in us that He worked in these Thessalonians. I trust that our somewhat detailed and lengthy study of this third verse it's been four weeks on it, will prove helpful to us that we might know that which as Christians we should emulate and that which we should seek to experience by the grace of God, a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that will produce work, a love for the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ that will produce labor, and a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ that will produce endurance and to see them carried out in the climate of a God consciousness that will make us men and women who do not play to the crowd, who do not seek to live a role that will get us in good standing before the eyes of our peers, but that we shall walk in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Let us pray.