From You Sounded Out the Word/Saving Faith

Introduction: Paul's Praise for the Thessalonians

0:08 I would invite you to turn with me to the first letter of Paul to the church at Thessalonica. First Thessalonians, as we continue our studies in this portion of the Word of God. First Thessalonians, chapter 1.

0:42 For the benefit of our visitors this morning, perhaps it would be in order to say that we began some months ago a study in this letter of Paul, and then took a vacation for nine or ten weeks in considering some 18 or 20 messages regarding the local church, its function and ministry, and now we've returned to our study in this section of God's Word. We're studying verses 2 through 10, which in a very real sense could be called Paul's paragraph of praise to God as he thinks of the church at Thessalonica, and he recounts the different things, which give him occasion when he draws aside to seek the face of God and thinks of the people at Thessalonica. He finds it easy to give thanks to God. As he says in verse 2, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering. And he allows his mind to bring up from the subconscious into the conscious certain things that were true of the people at Thessalonica, and then he commends them, the things for which he gave thanks in the presence of God, he now gives thanks on paper or parchment as he writes to the people at Thessalonica. We saw last week that when the gospel comes in power, it will always produce this glad reception of the Word.

2:06 Verse 6, He became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the Word, the first indication of the effectual call of God, the call of God that is more than an invitation, but is a powerful language, that is a way of giving thanks to the people at Thessalonica. And he gives thanks to the people at Thessalonica. And drawing him into living relationship with Christ is that he suddenly welcomes the Word. The Word perhaps that he's regarded with indifference or with a mere intellectual objectivity suddenly becomes the Word for which his soul thirsts, for we are begotten again by the Word of truth which liveth and abideth forever.

2:43 Now, when the gospel comes in power and that Word is received, there will always be to immediate, immediate effects. Verses 6 and 7 are those effects. He became followers of us and of the Lord. Verse 7, He became ensembles to all that believe.

3:01 When the Word is received and it is a spirit-wrought reception of that Word, men will become followers of the eminent servants of Christ and of Christ himself. And that word follower we saw last week literally means mimics, imitators. And in turn, having become imitators of the proper example, they became examples to others. Now in verses 8 through 10, Paul enlarges upon that thought and tells us, in telling them, what it means to be an ensample or example to all that believe.

3:39 Verse 8, For from you sounded out the Word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, 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, or better translated, they themselves report of us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and the 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.

The Sounding Forth of the Word from Thessalonica

4:15 Now why could Paul say that these people had become an example to all, that believe? Well he answers that question in verses 8 through 10 and the first thing that confronts us is this phrase, from you sounded out the Word of the Lord. So let us consider first of all the fact that there was a sounding forth of the Word in verse 8 and then in verse 9 we'll consider the manner of this sounding forth of the Word and then from verses 8 through 10 some of the important lessons contained in this, the sounding forth of the Word. Verse 8 then declares to us the fact that from the church at Thessalonica the Word of the Lord was sounded forth. Now this word sound forth is an interesting word. This is the only instance in which it's used in the New Testament. And it's the word that you would use if you were trying to describe the blast of a trumpet and it has the connotation of a clear ringing sound.

5:19 For you remember, it's the trumpet that was used even in the midst of the battle of footmen and the clanging of swords and shields and armor upon armor. But when one of the leaders would sound his trumpet above all the din and the noise of the battle the trumpet could be heard. And so Paul said, amidst all the din and all the confusion of human life and human existence and human conflict from you people at Thessalonica there went out this clear ringing discernible penetrating note of the word of the Lord. A very strong word.

5:53 Now what sounded forth? Well he describes it here as the word of the Lord. From you went out like the clarion call of a trumpet the word or the message of the Lord. Now why does he call it the word of the Lord?

6:08 Well because he's the author of it. Anything that went out from them it was his word. He gave it. It was deposited in them as a church by the apostles it was a word that pointed toward him and it was the word of the Lord.

6:27 There aren't six words of the Lord or seven and we can pick and choose which one suits us the best and all of that is bound up in the way Paul writes this. From you has sounded out this word of the Lord. Now where was it sounded? Well he tells us that not only in Macedonia and Achaia that is northern and southern Greece not only in these places but also in the Middle East.

6:50 It was sounded out there as he mentioned in verse 7 you became examples to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia but also in every place your faith to God where it is spread abroad. Paul said wherever I go I find that the word of the Lord has gone out from you people. He said I can't go anywhere but I hear about you people. I go into Macedonia there I hear about it.

7:13 I go into Achaia there I hear about it. I go somewhere else I hear about it. This trumpet apparently was blown quite loudly. Paul could hear it all over that section as he would carry out his missionary journeys.

7:27 Now what in particular was sounded out? This is interesting. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord where Macedonia and Achaia and in every place now what was the particular note that was sounded? Here it is.

7:42 Your faith to God word is spread abroad. Wherever Paul went he heard the report that these people had become true believers in the living and the true God and in his son Jesus Christ. The fact that some people in this seaport town that was right there on one of the main centers of what was called the Via Ignatia one of the Roman military roads a place of the center of commerce and activity he said from this place has gone out the message that you people who were idolaters have become believers in the true and living God and the report was so widespread he concludes that verse by saying we need not to speak anything. He said I don't need to send back the report to evangelistic headquarters. I don't need to send back any kind of report and when I come into a new town I don't need to tell them what wonderful things God has done here. The report has beat me there.

8:46 You'll find several times in the book of the Acts that Paul and his companions when they were making their rounds of the churches would report what God had done among the Gentiles but he said I didn't need to make a report. I go there and I stand up in the assembly and one of the elders recognizes me and I say I'd love to tell you people what God's done at Thessalonica. They sit down Paul we've already heard. I don't need to say a thing.

The Manner of the Sounding Forth: Transformed Lives, Not Verbal Proclamation

9:06 The report has preceded me everywhere I go the message has gone out. So in verse 8 you have this fact established that from that center at Thessalonica the word of the Lord was sounded out like a clarion trumpet. Now my sermon had to be junked when I began to study verse 9. I was all prepared with verse 8 not all prepared but as I was preparing ahead in the past weeks and months and thinking of what I'd say I was all prepared when I came to verse 8 to really give you a rousing sermon on the necessity of being a witnessing church and then using verse 8 as the background sounding forth the word of the Lord.

9:46 I was then going to say now how do we do it and then give some practical instruction on seeking to get the church geared to some kind of systematic aggressive verbal or printed proclamation of the message. But then I started studying verse 9 and I said well if I'm going to preach that I'm going to have to find it from a different text because verse 9 answers the question what was the manner in which the word of the Lord was sounded for? And he tells us in verse 9 that it was not a verbal communication of the content of the gospel but it was something else. For they themselves who's the they?

10:27 Well the people in Macedonia and Achaia and wherever I go these places where your faith to God were to spread abroad they themselves show of us or report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God and to serve and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. Now was Paul commending them for an aggressive systematic verbal communication of the gospel? No. Now this is needed and I don't want to be misunderstood.

11:10 If we are to claim to be a true New Testament church a true gospel church then one of the things that must characterize us as a church among other things pure worship a right preaching of the word a right administration of the ordinances discipline and the rest one of the other things that must characterize us is that we are involved as a church not just one or two people but as a church in the sending forth of the gospel of Christ as a message that can be verbalized spoken with the lips passed out in forms of literature. It says of the early church in Acts 8 verse 1 that they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Paul says in Philippians 2 concerning the church holding forth the word of life. That's our responsibility and I trust by the grace of God as we grow in what it is to be a worshiping people as we grow in our understanding and experience of what it means to rightly receive and be participants in the ordinances of Christ as I trust we'll grow in the administration of true discipline so I trust that we will increasingly grow in aggressive evangelistic zeal and by that I mean systematic wholehearted whole involvement of the church communicating the message in this area and unto the ends of the earth. But that's not what's taught here.

12:41 No, Paul says the message of the Lord was sounded out from you folk by the silent yet powerful elements of your transformed lives. For he says wherever we go this is what we meet in Macedonia and Achaia every place your faith to God is spread abroad. Not your message about God. Not the fact that you're teaching people about him but your faith in him is spread abroad and then he says in verse 9 by that I mean these people tell us what happened when we came among you.

13:20 We came among you preaching the gospel and they tell us that the results were this you turn to this God from your idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his son from heaven even Jesus. So that the manner in which the gospel or the message of the Lord to use the term here in verse 8 was sounded out from the church at Thessalonica in this instance was not an organized systematic verbal communication of the gospel but it was by this powerful yet silent eloquence of transformed lives.

Doctrinal Lesson 1: Saving Faith is Directed to Objective Revelation

14:02 Now if this is so what are the important lessons that the spirit of God would have us learn from this passage? Well there are so many I told my wife and several others this week it's sort of like coming to the table at Thanksgiving when there's so much food you don't know where to begin and it's frustrating so you just got to start somewhere and hope you can get a little bit of everything. Well that's this passage there are so many practical lessons in this passage that I think I've at least got them divided up into the meat and potatoes and we'll call the meat the doctrinal implications and lessons and then the potatoes we'll call the practical implications and lessons. Now what are some of the tremendous doctrinal implications of this passage? Well the first one is this Paul indicates in this passage that saving faith is directed to an objective revelation. Now stick with me and I'll explain what I mean.

15:08 Notice what he says for from you verse 8 sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia but in every place your faith to God word is spread abroad for they themselves show of us what manner of faith entering in we had unto you how that ye turn to God to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his son whom he raised from the dead even Jesus do you see in these few verses how he's identifying the God he's talking about? He said the report we meet everywhere is that you people have become believers in the true and the living God and in his son by that I mean the one who lived who died and who was raised from the dead and who's coming back again who is the judge of the world so that Paul in giving this account of how the message of the conversion of the Thessalonian people was spread abroad everywhere gives us a tremendous lesson on this principle that saving faith is directed to an objective revelation he didn't say everywhere we go we hear you people now have faith and oh that's so wonderful you've got faith like that little ditty that who's saying it to Roy Rogers and his wife have faith hope and charity that's the way to live successfully how do I know the Bible tells me so well the Bible never said any such thing have faith hope and charity that's the way to live successfully

16:37 what the Bible tells us is that there's to be faith in the God revealed in scripture in the Christ revealed in the word of God so that our attention is not so much upon faith as though faith is some kind of magical ingredient like a super vitamin of some kind that will fix you up good and cure all your ills but faith is merely the bond which unites us to the living God to change the figure is merely the hand which takes hold of the great provisions that God gives in his grace now you say why stress this point well perhaps if you sat where I sat a week ago Saturday night you'd feel the need of stressing it for I sat in a church that no doubt one time preached the gospel and I sat with a group of young people and in the midst of the young people were the young people's advisors a young couple very gracious very nice very culture but obviously very liberal in their theological persuasions and in the course of our conversation I was there to answer questions from these young people because they were frustrated that their directors didn't give them any answers but just gave them more questions and as I was answering questions from the Bible it became obvious that we had two different brands of Christianity myself and the young people's advisor and so I wanted the young people to see the folly of this kind of thinking so I asked the young woman I said tell me you say the only thing that's important is to believe that God created us and that Jesus

18:07 Christ is the Savior and to believe in Christ I said what Christ do you believe in well I believe in Christ well what Christ well the Christ that I believe in yeah but who is he well he's the Christ I've experienced yes but who is he you see I was trying to get her to define who her Christ was but she couldn't and she couldn't have cared less the fact that she has something called faith in something or someone called Christ and this has brought some kind of satisfaction and meaningful existence to her that's the only important thing to her you see her so called faith was not rooted in an objective revelation of who Christ is not Paul for if you read the account of the founding of the church at Thessalonica it says he went into the synagogue and he reasoned and he disputed out of the scriptures proving that Jesus was the Christ he set before them the objective revelation of who God is who Christ is what he had done and then he said repent and believe in that Christ and in so doing the promise of salvation is yours so the first great and very vital doctrinal lesson that we learn in this passage is saving faith must be directed to an objective revelation and that revelation is embodied in the scriptures telling us who God is who Jesus Christ is what he has done

19:36 and Paul is careful to identify him in so many ways here as the true God the living God the son that was raised from the dead who was Jesus of Nazareth this one who has delivered us from the wrath to come now this says something very practical to us as a church do we long to see a visitation of God in such power that when you go to the next town and you start to open your mouth to tell somebody what the Lord is doing in saving people that they'll say you don't need to tell me I've already heard that there are people there that have turned from their idols and are trusting in the true and the living God and in his son Jesus Christ the one that was buried and was raised from the dead you follow me they can be just as contemporary as the Beatles yes now if we want that what must we do well we must be careful in our evangelizing to do precisely what Paul did we must not view evangelism as some kind of nebulous pressure to try to get people to church or some kind of psychological panacea that will just help them out of their problems but we must view evangelism as our responsibility as individuals and together as a church to tell people in this community in our neighborhood in our schools in our PTA's in the shop

21:06 the facts about God the facts about Jesus Christ the facts about his saving acts his death his burial his resurrection that's the task of evangelism to declare the facts that God has revealed in his holy word then and only then will it ever be said if it's said at all that the report has gone out your faith to God word is spread abroad then and only then will it be true evangelism when it is response to the objective revelation embodied in the scriptures that's the theme of Paul's questions there in Romans 10 9 and 10 in Romans chapter 10 how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear except they have a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved granted that's true but how can they call on an unknown Lord somebody must go to tell them the facts about God the facts about Christ that's the first great lesson in this passage and I trust we will never forget it the great second great theological or what we might call doctrinal lesson is this saving faith is inseparably joined with to true repentance having read this passage many times it wasn't until this past week that I saw this connection will you notice carefully

Doctrinal Lesson 2: Saving Faith is Inseparably Joined with True Repentance

22:34 verse 8 says your faith to God word is spread abroad what was spread abroad was that these people had become believers in the true God now how did people describe their faith verse 9 for they themselves report of us what manner of entering in we had unto you how ye turn to God from idols to serve the living in the true God and to wait for his son from heaven verse 8 your faith to God word is spread abroad verses 9 and 10 describe that faith as a faith that produced what a turning to God from idols to serve the Lord and to wait for his son from heaven indicating that in the thinking of these people there was an inseparable relationship between saving faith faith to God word and true repentance turning from idols to serve the living and the true God do you have faith in God that's sort of an anemic phrase in our day everybody you have faith in God sure you have faith in God if it's biblical faith in the biblical God then these things will be just as true of you as they were true of the Thessalonians if your faith to God word is that faith which is the gift of God spoken of in Ephesians 2 then the report should go out from you that you too have turned to God from your idols

24:03 to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his son from heaven for true faith is inseparably joined to biblical repentance now let's break these things down briefly turning to the living God in faith meant first of all according to verse 9 a turning away from all false gods for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you how that ye turn to God from your idols when the apostle Paul went into a pagan situation he didn't have this idea that well you know we must not disturb the existing structures you just can't go in and be negative we must be positive and so I'll just go in with a nice sweet positive approach and I'll so enamor these people with the truth that just by some automatic process their false gods and the rest will drop off Paul didn't have that philosophy that's the philosophy of much that passes in the name of Christ in our day but when he went into a pagan situation where there was idolatry what did he do well in Acts chapter 14 we have a clear answer to that question and no doubt he probably did the same thing here Acts chapter

25:24 14 and verse 15 here these people were about to worship Paul and Barnabas gave them names after several of their Greek gods perhaps we should read verse 14 before we read 15 Acts 14 14 which when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of they rent their clothes and ran in among the people crying out and saying sirs why do ye these things we also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities these puffs of wind these gods who are nothing the word vanity means oh nothing a puff of wind a mirage turn from these vanities unto the living God which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are there in he came with a very negative message he said we have come to tell you and to preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities turn your back upon them and acknowledge the true and the living God and approach him through his son Jesus Christ and apparently this was the substance of Paul's message to the greater body of the Gentile community at Thessalonica Acts 17 gives us the record of his initial evangelism amongst the Jews and proselytes in the synagogue but here

26:54 from this context in first Thessalonians we see that there was this idol worship and that their faith in God being inseparably joined with true repentance meant in the first place a turning away from every false God now I want to ask you a very simple question this morning has your professed faith in the living and true God been attended with a turning away from every false God oh but you say we aren't idol worshipers aren't we what is an idol what is an idol any person or thing that is set up in the place of the true and living God is revealed in scripture that is revered that is worshiped that is served that is honored you don't need to frame your idol in wood or jade or stone you don't need to shape him with hammer and with chisel all you need to do is concoct to God out of the stuff of your own imagination and out of the prejudices and predisposed notions of your peers and worship that God and that's idolatry and I'm convinced that great segments of professing Christendom are nothing but refined idolatry for the moment you begin to declare what the scripture says about God that he's the God who sits upon a throne of absolute sovereignty who does according to his will in the armies of heaven and earth they say oh no no no my God's not like

28:24 that well who is your God then the minute you begin to declare God is the God revealed in this very passage who has reserved wrath for all his enemies and who will punish them with everlasting destruction and people say oh but my God wouldn't send people to hell forever well who is that God then who is your God he's an idol he's not the living and the true God for the God revealed in scripture is the only true and living God and he's the God revealed as an absolute sovereign as the judge of the universe as the God who will punish with everlasting destruction those who defy his rule and who reject his son have you turned from idols to the living and the true God or is your God simply the concoction of mother's theories about him and your sweet old Sunday school teacher's theories about him and the world's ideas about him all sort of thrown together so that what you have is like Aaron when you had Mrs. Aby's earrings and Mrs. so-and-so's jewels and somebody's rings and they threw it all into the pot and then it came out and was shaped into the golden calf the product of all the contributions of the people of Israel is that your God just the product the sum total of all the contributions of your thoughts and mama's thoughts and grandpa's and the Sunday school teacher or is he the God who emerges out of

The Nature of True Repentance: Turning to Serve the Living God

29:53 the word of God as you study this book with this longing oh God I want to know thee as thou revealed in scripture have you turned from idols if your faith is genuine faith it's been inseparably joined to true repentance and the first elements of repentance are these of turning away from all false gods a turning to the living God and that phrase is just pregnant with meaning ye turned to God it speaks of a whole new focus in the direction of their lives whereas once their interest their standards their morals their goals their ambitions were either framed by their understanding of the wishes of the false God or by the depraved notions of their own hearts now their ambitions their standards their morals their conduct all of life was framed because of this new directive ye turned to God life was now lived in the context of face to face relationship with the true and with the living God that's always one of the attendants of true faith your faith to God word is spread abroad ye turned to this God from your idols and then he says you turn with a disposition not only to receive the benefits of his salvation but to submit to the implications of his

31:22 rule ye turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God true repentance always involves not only a turning away from the false God and all mental allegiance to him but also volitional allegiance to the false God and a swearing of allegiance to this living God ye turned to serve the living and the true God he didn't say you turned to get away from the wrath of the living God to go scot-free to do as you pleased and then at some subsequent time you thought it was a nice idea that you ought to begin to serve him this is just teaching the basic doctrine of the lordship of Christ being involved in true response or the response of true faith using different terminology but the same concept that all true faith in God is inseparably joined to basic subjection of the will to this God Paul describes it in greater detail in Romans chapter 6 verse 18 he says God be thanked that ye who were the servants of sin have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you and being made free from sin and become servants to God you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life then he says he turned

32:49 not only from the false God to the true God with the disposition to be submissive to him but notice verse 10 and to wait for his son from heaven whereas prior to this reception of the gospel the report of which is gone abroad everywhere your lives were earth bound the things of eternity were a thing of no concern to you having turned to the true God Having become believers in God, your whole sphere of interest was shifted from earth to heaven. Now, your sphere of activity was not shifted. You still had to get up in the morning and cook your coffee. You still had to get up in the morning and shine your shoes and spank your kids during the day and love them up at night and wash their clothes. No, he said, life itself in terms of what's necessary to make up life and human existence, this didn't change. He didn't say you all suddenly became monastics. You all suddenly gave up your wives and your families and went into cloisters or something else.

The Nature of True Repentance: Waiting for His Son from Heaven

33:56 No, no, no, no. But he said in the midst of all the normal routine of life, an entirely new focus came in. Having turned from idols to the living and the true God to serve him, your expectations, your longings were now fixed, not upon the passage, not upon the passing things of time, but upon the great issues of eternity, to wait for his Son from heaven. What's that mean?

34:22 Sit back and get a long, faraway, wispy look in one's eyes and put on a white robe and find the highest hill and wait for the clouds to part? That's the way some have interpreted it, and they've actually done that. Put on their white robes, go up to the top of a hill somewhere and wait. Well, I'm glad they had sense enough not to hold their breath while they were waiting.

34:42 It would have been a mass burial. No, to wait for the Son from heaven, it would have been a mass burial. But it means, you see, that in the midst of all the responsibilities and all the activities, and later on he mentioned some of them, about very practical things, about working with your hands, providing for yourself and for your family, very practical things, but in the midst of all of this, you're not bound to it, you're not tied to it, this is not your end, your goal. No, he said in the midst of all of this, you're longing for that day when the work of grace that has been begun in you will be completed, that day when we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

35:22 That's one of the attendants of true faith, for it's one of the inseparable attendants of repentance. Repentance changes the whole sphere of interest. And the cursed concept in our day of faith being something, an added dimension that just comes in to where you are, I could scream and shudder when I hear that. Do you need a new dimension in life?

35:43 In other words, you've got this dimension that's fine, and that one that's fine, but you've got a little gaping hole here, and if you'll trust Jesus, that'll give that added dimension. So that you still go on, basically earthbound, fleshbound, selfbound, but now Jesus sidles up to you in the midst of this, and makes you feel so lovely. That's not the concept of the scripture. The concept of the scripture is there's a radical shift of interest, from earth to heaven, from the world of time to that of eternity, from the world of sense and flesh, to the world of the spirit.

36:17 And that's what Paul is talking about here, and he said, wherever I go, that's the report that meets me, that you people have suddenly got a whole new focus in life. People look at you and they say, well look, that's the same Mrs. Jones, that's the same Mrs. Smith.

36:31 She has to go through the same activities, but it's obvious, her whole sphere of interest and longing has been elevated above this to that. That's the report we meet everywhere we go, that you people not only gave up your idols, and not only turned to the living and the true God, but, all your hopes and your longings focus upon the coming of his beloved son. Is that true of you? Suppose a total stranger who knew nothing about the Christian message, would have been dropped down out of Mars, just happened to fall out one of the windows of a flying saucer, and right down at your living room, in your kitchen table, and just live with you for a few weeks.

37:12 And then was picked up to live with your neighbor, makes no profession of Christianity, saving faith or anything, and then you're gone. Now, would you see something different? Oh, I don't mean they curse, and you don't curse. I hope they'd see that difference.

37:25 They dishonor the Sabbath, you honor the Sabbath. I hope they'd see that difference. But would they be able to back off and say, look, it's not only that they do a few things differently here, and what they say, and where they go, it's not just a few isolated different habits and patterns of life. But would they be able to back off and say, it's obvious that these people over here, they're thinking, they're planning, they're planning the dispensing of their money, the channeling of their energies, of their interests, it's obvious that everything's tied to this life.

37:57 These people over here, it's very obvious that though they're in this life, their interests, their goals, their ambitions, are all related to a world to come. Would it be reported of us that we were waiting for His Son from heaven? That's the report that went out here. Because this was one of the fruits of faith, of faith that was inseparably joined to true repentance.

Application: Examining Our Idols and Heavenly Focus

38:28 If the Gospels come to us in power and we've received it, then at least in some measure this is true of us. Young people, your generation is worshipping at the shrine of man's ideas of what's right and wrong, man's ideas that there are no rights and wrongs. That's what the shrine that all your buddies and your girlfriends are worshipping at. Man's great discovery that all through the centuries people have been laboring under the delusion that certain things are right, certain things are wrong, and now our generation, mighty 20th century man, has discovered there is no right, there is no wrong.

39:09 And they go at this with a prophetic zeal. And they want you kids to come into this wonderful discovery to liberate you from all the shackles and chains that all the past generations have forged in which to bind you and chain you to keep you from being a true man or a true woman. And they're going about it with studied zeal. Yes they are.

39:31 Everything. To liberate you. Their God is the God of man's mind and man's great discovery. Is that the God you're worshipping?

39:43 Well by the grace of God if you turn from that false God to the living and the true God, who has some moral absence, who because he's God has a right to say, do this, don't do this. Who has a right to tell me what to do and what not to do. Are you worshipping that God or are you worshipping this idol? That's the idol.

40:09 The idol you parents, we parents face. It's a reconstruction of the God of mammon, Baal worship, God of things. All that's important is having it easier for a longer period of time with more pay while you're doing it. That's the God.

40:32 That's the God who's constructed. Are you worshipping that God? That's the God who's dictating strike after strike, discontent upon discontent, most affluent society in the world of any period of the history of the nations, yet clamming, scratching, clinging, grasping, more, more, more. Why?

40:57 Because that God dictates it. God of mammon, God of things, God of material possessions. Are you worshipping that God? Or having food and raiment, are you content?

41:08 Oh, to be blessedly delivered from the itch. The scripture says having food and raiment let us therewith be content. Doesn't say grudgingly accept that and itch and scratch for more. Be content.

41:25 Are you released? Are you released from the service of the God of mammon? Have you turned from that God to the living and the true God? And having food and raiment and the smile of His countenance, all is well.

41:39 And if He's pleased to give you some more, fine, you hold it loosely. If He's pleased to take it, fine, you've lost nothing for you weren't clinging anyway. You're holding it loosely. To be true believers involves that.

Doctrinal Lesson 3: The Fruits of Saving Faith and True Repentance Cannot Be Hidden

41:50 My brethren, my sisters in the Lord, we have time to just touch one other thing in closing. The third tremendous doctrinal lesson in this passage is having seen that saving faith is directed to the objective revelation of the scriptures, that saving faith is inseparably joined to true repentance, this third principle flows out of the second. The fruits of saving faith and true repentance can't be hidden for long. Paul says your faith to Godward is spread abroad.

42:29 By whom? By you? Are you going around tooting a horn saying, we've become believers, we've become believers, everybody hear us, here goes our trumpet? No.

42:38 He says they report what manner of entering in we had of you. Somebody else was tooting the trumpet. They were going around sounding their own horn. No, no.

42:46 You see that true faith to Godward, inseparably joined to true repentance, turning from idols to the true and living God and waiting for His Son from heaven. True faith and true repentance the fruits of them cannot be hidden for long. The report went forth. It couldn't be stopped.

43:05 It was like a river that overflows its banks and nothing will stop it. It just goes until it's spent its power. So Paul didn't need to promote it. Paul didn't need to push it.

43:16 It just overflowed. And the scripture teaches that this is a principle that wherever God in grace implants true faith and true repentance sooner or later, it'll come out into the open. That's why our Lord could say in Matthew 7 verses 17 to 19, by their fruits He shall know them. And then He speaks of gathering evil fruit or bad fruit from an evil tree and good fruit from a good tree.

43:43 That's why Paul could say in Acts 26, 20 and this is the best commentary I know on this passage. He said that he preached first at Damascus and at Jerusalem, Acts 26, 20 and throughout all the coast of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God as the true and the living God and do works meet for or answering to consistent with this professed repentance. Paul knew that if the turning was genuine, if the repentance was sincere, that then the works would follow. And that's all bound up in our passage.

Critique of Externalizing Invisible Spiritual Work

44:26 They report what manner of entering in we had unto you. What happened in the realm of the invisible world of the Spirit. The Gospel came. You people received it.

44:36 There was faith to Godward. A turning away from idols. These are all hidden things. They can't be seen with the eyes.

44:43 They can't be seen with the eyes. That's the problem with the modern invitation system. It's trying to get externalized that which cannot be. So that this week alone I got two letters.

44:56 One from a missionary. One from a missionary group. Large and influential. Another from a group working with a specific age group.

45:05 Both of which tried to externalize the invisible work of the Spirit. We praise God that at the close of the service I'm quoting now. First a few, then more. And that night forty people came to Christ.

45:19 Not forty people made a decision or came to the Father, but came to Christ. You see what they've done? They've tried to externalize faith and repentance so that when people walked the aisle in their minds they got to Christ. The other letter said we praise God for a good fall rally.

45:33 We had a hundred and twenty-six present and sixteen were born again. Oh, it's got so now. We can see when the invisible Spirit in the hidden depths of a heart gives a new heart. Implants repentance and faith.

45:50 We can see this now. See? So many were born again. Oh, we can see the new birth.

45:54 We can see people coming to Christ. No, no. No, no. Repentance and faith are the activities of the heart in the invisible realm of the Spirit.

46:02 But they do not always remain in the invisible realm. For by their fruits, the visible realm, ye shall know them whether the transaction has gone on in the invisible. That's why Paul could say repent, turn to God, the invisible actings of the heart in relationship with the invisible God. But he said if these are genuine then they'll be the visible fruits.

The Unstoppable Report of Transformed Lives

46:25 Do works meet for repentance? And 1 Thessalonians 1, 8 through 10 is a beautiful expansion of this. Wherever I go, he said, your faith to God is spread abroad. Well, how? Couldn't see it?

46:39 They didn't go around with a sign around their neck, we've got faith? No, but he said the fruits of it were there. The fact that you turned from your idols to the living and the true God. You were serving Him.

46:49 You were waiting for His Son from heaven. This can't be hidden. Why? Because it'll touch your life from your first cup of coffee in the morning to the last breath in word when you drop off to sleep.

47:01 Faith in repentance, the invisible actings of the soul in response to the invisible world of the Spirit cannot be hidden for they'll affect from the morning till the night. And Paul said it just couldn't be hidden. Think of what it meant there, right at this main center on that Roman road. And you know what most seaport towns are like.

47:25 The reputation they have today is no doubt different from the reputation they had then. You know what towns of commerce are like where you have a great cross-section of people coming through. The immorality, the sin, the looseness. Somebody passed through and maybe go to one of his own haunts and say, hey, what's happened?

47:43 Where's my buddies? Where's my drinking buddies? Hey, haven't you heard? Some guy named Paul or Saul or something.

47:48 He came down here a few weeks ago and got preaching and John and Harry and they're done with us. Yeah, what happened? Oh, something about Jesus and believing in God. Oh, is that so?

47:57 Hmm. I have to go find some more buddies. So he tries to hide up his buddies in another spot and a few are missing there and the word begins to get around. Some fella comes into town and goes to hunt up the woman he usually consorted with when he was in this port and finds out she's gone out of business.

48:13 What happened? Oh, something about some guy named Paul came here and got preaching and she isn't the same anymore. She's in a different business now. You see how the report got out?

48:23 Couldn't be hid. Faith and repentance would touch the activities of life, the speech of the lips, the attitudes, the actions, the reactions. Oh, beloved, for such a visitation of the Spirit of God that I and others who stand the place of official responsibility when we go elsewhere and say, well, you know, we're encouraged by what the Lord's doing there in the Trinity Church, they'd say, listen, don't tell us the report's already got here. We've heard that there's been some turning to God from idols, that the people there are further away from God than the people who have been to serve the Lord, that their expectations and longings and interests are heavenly and not earthly alone.

49:05 Oh, we've heard all about it. You don't need to tell us a thing. Why? Because the fruits of faith and repentance can't be hidden.

Conclusion: The Church's True 'Map' and Visitation

49:15 And listen, beloved, the absence of them can't be hidden for too long either. Wasn't it Abe Lincoln said you can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time? You may fool some. You can speak the words, but over the long haul, sham usually sooner or later reveals itself.

49:40 Is the report going out of us, the fruits of faith and repentance? You parents, you see the implications of this? I don't feel my children will have to tell me when the Lord saves them. Well, I hope they will.

49:57 But I think I'll know it by the fruit in their lives. Is that reasonable to expect that? This has been the past few years as the Lord's been pleased to touch especially some of the lives of these girls who've come from the hospital and begin to get a sneaking suspicion maybe the Lord's done something because they begin to listen to the Word in a different way and begin to come to prayer meetings with a different relish and begin to wonder, you know, I think maybe the Lord's doing something or done something there and then sooner or later can't be hidden, comes out where God has wrought something inwardly, it'll manifest itself. And I see this is the third great lesson, practical lesson of this passage that the fruits of saving faith and true repentance cannot be hidden. What is it that we need that's going to put the Trinity Church on the map? Do you long to see it on the map? You know what we mean by the phrase on the map?

50:55 What'll do it? Some say, boy, if we just get a building like so-and-so's got, we'd be on the map. Someone else says, boy, if we could just get a...

51:02 Now this is not to knock down any of you men that want to get on the radio. I feel about as strong as you do. I feel we ought to. But this is not the real answer.

51:10 Some say, boy, if we get on the radio, we'll get on the map. Someone else says, well, if we just get a building, we'll get on the map. Someone else says, boy, if we just get a house-to-house visitation program, we'll get on the map. You know what'll put us on the map?

51:24 For God the Holy Ghost is so breaking upon us that there's some true biblical repentance and faith and the report of that will go out so that we need not speak anything. If God would visit us in a way of mercy and grace and conviction and conversion, the report of that would go out. So that we need not to speak anything. Then God might use a building, might use a radio program, might use a visitation program, but they'd all be just the little puppy dogs following Him behind the main thing of the visitation of God in grace upon our hearts.

51:58 And I'm just simple enough to believe that if God would do that, then the same process that went on here at Thessalonica will go on here in our own midst, in Essex County and out in ever-widening circles. That the faith to God will be spread abroad so that we need not say anything. For men will report what manner of entering in the word is had and the servants of God have had. How that we, by His grace, have turned from items to serve the living and the true God and to wait for His Son from heaven.

52:30 Several other basic important doctrinal principles here, but we'll have to let them go for next week and then consider the Lord willing some of the practical lessons in the passage as well. May the Lord help us to receive His word and by His grace to walk in its light. Let us unite in prayer.