1 Th. 5:28
Grace Be With You
Pastor Martin expounds 1 Thessalonians 5:28, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you," as a New Year's blessing. He situates this benediction within the challenging context of the Thessalonian church, highlighting its importance as the 'alpha and omega' of Christian experience. Martin then unpacks the meaning of 'grace' as God's undeserved favor and its gifts, specifically 'of our Lord Jesus Christ' as grace purposed, purchased, and imparted through the historic, divine, and all-sufficient Christ. He applies this by calling believers to consider Christ's glorious person and plenteous provision, and challenges unbelievers to examine their relationship to Christ, warning of God's wrath.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 8 sections · 47 min
- The Setting of the Blessing: A Challenged Church 0:02
- The Importance of the Blessing: Alpha and Omega of Christian Life 7:10
- The Meaning of Grace: Undeserved Favor and Its Gifts 11:26
- The Meaning of 'Our Lord Jesus Christ': Grace Channeled Through Him 15:58
- Directive 1: Consider Christ's Glorious Person 24:29
- Directive 2: Consider Christ's Plenteous Provision 27:24
- Directive 3: Consider Your Relationship to Christ 34:45
- The Fruit of the Blessing: A Peaceful Conscience and Powerful Witness 42:00
Key Quotes
“That the whole significance of the entire body of divine revelation is this. That God might bring a display of His grace in the Lord Jesus that will be adequate for all of the needs of sinful creatures who come under the canopy of that grace and its provisions.”
“So in a very real sense, grace. Is the alpha and omega of the Christian life and experience. The grace of God revealed. The grace of God communicated through the Lord Jesus Christ. So to be ignorant of grace, to feel no need of grace, to fail to revel in grace, is in reality to be estranged from the very heart of the biblical revelation.”
“I think one of the most helpful definitions I have found is this, the disposition of undeserved favor in the heart of God and all the gifts which that favor bestows.”
“And listen any talk of grace any thought of grace divorced from the historic Lord Jesus Christ is absolute baseless foolishness. People have this vague notion somehow God will be favorable to me and God will be kind to me and they have no love for faith in or understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ that's nothing but delusion. The only grace the Apostle Paul knew of and that the Bible respects is grace that is inseparably tied to the historic Christ. Do away with him and you do away with grace.”
“No matter what you anticipate no matter what you can dream of as the possibilities that lie out there if the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us even if etched in our tombstone will be the date nineteen-thirty 70 we have nothing to fear for by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ even death has been made our friend so much for the setting of the text the importance of”
“So you see child of God whatever the need may be whatever the circumstance may be there is plenteous provision in the Lord Jesus for the meeting of that need and so this blessing takes on new meaning for when he says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you it's a call to consider the plenteous provision that is in him”
“This one roof acts as a canopy to all of us from the elements outside the snow, the cold weather but there are two roofs here this morning the canopy of grace that rests over the head of some the canopy of the wrath and curse of God that rests over others the whole issue is your relationship to Jesus Christ that's it that's it that's the whole issue”
Applications
Believers
- As an assembly, pray for such grace and power that sinners shall be smitten with conviction of sin and seek the Lord in repentance and faith through the preaching of the word.
All listeners
- If the word 'grace' doesn't cause your heart to leap for joy, you are either ignorant of its meaning or a stranger to it.
- At the start of the new year, look at this blessing and consider it a call to once again reflect upon the glorious person of our Lord Jesus Christ, having the same high estimation of Him as Paul did.
- Whatever the need or circumstance, there is plenteous provision in the Lord Jesus for the meeting of that need.
- Consider your relationship to Jesus Christ: are you under the canopy of grace or the canopy of God's wrath?
- If you are still wedded to your sins, under God's wrath, and indifferent to Christ's claims, repent and flee to Him in faith.
- Walk through the coming year with a conscience void of offense to God and man through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, having found cleansing in His precious blood.
- As a husband and father, live a life that commends the power of the gospel, earning the respect of your children and even unconverted spouses.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 70 paragraphs, roughly 47 minutes.
The Setting of the Blessing: A Challenged Church
This time in the series that we've presently been engaged in for over a period of three years, I'll ask you to turn to 1 Thessalonians and chapter 5.
This study has been intermitted with a series, some of you will remember, on the whole subject of the biblical teaching on the church, biblical officers, a period of perhaps some 20 or 30 weeks when we covered some of those subjects. But apart from that, it's been about three years since we commenced our study in this epistle with a consideration of the birth of that church as found in the 17th chapter of Acts. And now we've come clear through to verse 28, the focus of our study today, the last verse in this wonderfully instructive, warm epistle in which the apostle bears his heart to these his barrens, his little ones in the faith. As I was considering what might be most appropriate for a message on this, the first Lord's Day of the New Year, several texts and subjects crossed my mind. But as I considered this particular text, I felt, as so often has been the case, that there would be no more appropriate text for a New Year's sermon than that which fell in the regular course of our study in the exposition of this epistle. The text, verse 28,
Lord Jesus Christ, be with you. Now will you spend a moment with me trying to capture the setting of this text and how it would come to these young believers there at Thessalonica. Remember, many of them had been enmeshed right to the hilt in the paganism of that day. They were idolaters, as we discovered in chapter 1, where the apostle says, Ye turn to God from your idols.
And as is ever the case with false worship, there was a terrible expression of false living. And these people, like so many in their day, enmeshed in pagan worship, were also enmeshed in pagan morality. Very clear hints of it in chapter 4, where he speaks of the necessity of these young believers abstaining from that kind of fornication and that kind of immoral conduct which characterizes the Gentiles who know not God. This is what they were like.
They had been enmeshed in all of this, and they were now, as young believers, seeking to live pure lives in an impure society. The Jews, who opposed the apostle so much that he had to leave them prematurely, were continuing to oppose the gospel and its witness as found in this young body of believers, so much so that the apostle brings the sharpest condemnation of the Jews as a national body, perhaps in all of his writings, here in the second chapter, where he speaks of the wrath of God coming upon them to the uttermost, and he encourages them to go on suffering. So this text comes to a body of believers, young in the faith, seeking to be pure in an impure society, seeking to be true to the gospel in the midst of the pressure of apostate religion, for that's what Judaism was here. No longer the people of God. God has said, I will take the kingdom from you and give it to another nation that will bring forth fruits. There was great ignorance in their midst.
So much ignorance amongst these believers that when their loved ones died, they were grieving with the same hopeless grief as were the pagans. That terrible cry and that moaning and sighing that is so common to all pagan religions who face the dark foreboding jaws of death and over it is written, no answer, no hope. And so he has to write to them saying, you shouldn't grieve as those who have no hope. And he gives them the necessary instruction.
So you have this situation to which this word comes, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Paul had written to this young body of believers to thank God for the beginnings of grace in them, to encourage them for the manifestations of grace seen in their midst. He wrote to instruct them, to exhort them. And as he finishes this letter full of thanksgiving, encouragement, instruction and exhortation, he says, as it were, my hope that all of this will be accomplished in you in the midst of immorality, in the midst of paganism, in the midst of ignorance, in the midst of the pressures of apostate religion. This is my hope that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ will be with you.
And so by way, paralleling our situation to theirs, many of us can thank God for some beginnings of the operations of grace. And yet the development of that grace is not coming to light in a greenhouse or in a hothouse or in isolation. We are seeking to be pure in an impure society, seeking to press on in the knowledge of the true God with apostate religion abounding on every hand. We look, we look out into the world.
There's nothing to encourage us in a life of holiness, a life of expectation of the Lord's return. There's nothing in the church or little in the church to cause us to take encouragement. There's little as we look in our own hearts, deflection from the truth, coldness, barrenness, lack of desire after God. And yet we've come through this epistle with all of its instruction, with all of its exhortation, with all of its direction, with all of its information, what hope is there for us as we face the coming year, as we face the coming decade, that we shall be that which is set forth in this epistle?
Well, our hope is the hope of the Thessalonians, that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be with us. That's the setting of the text. Coming not just as something the apostles scratched off in order to formally end his letter like ours sincerely yours or very truly yours, yours or yours sincerely. No, no.
The apostle, as it were, pours his whole expectation and confidence of what will happen in the future in that Thessalonian assembly in the midst of all these adverse circumstances. He pins all of his hopes upon this, that there will continue to be an ever-increasing supply of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if that is true, then they will be holy in the midst of an unholy society. If that's true, they will abound in true religion in the face of apostate religion.
The Importance of the Blessing: Alpha and Omega of Christian Life
If the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with them, they will receive the instruction, experience its power, and express its beauty to the world. So much for the setting of the text. Now as we come to grapple with the text itself, consider with me in the first place the importance of this blessing. For this is what it is.
It's a blessing pronounced by the apostle upon these people, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. How important is this blessing? Well, I took down my concordance, the one that has the words arranged not in terms of the English translation, but in terms of their use in the Greek, in the original language. And it's interesting that every Pauline epistle both begins and ends with this blessing.
At the beginning of the epistles, he generally says words to this, in fact, grace, mercy, and peace, or grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. He begins every one of his epistles. You can check them out. Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon.
And there's a question mark over Hebrews. That ends with it, but doesn't begin with it. So all those that are clearly Pauline epistles begin with grace be unto you, and they end with grace be unto you. Now that's pretty significant.
When God repeats something, it's not for nothing. It's for something. And you know what the last words of the Bible are? Not even so come Lord Jesus.
That's the last prayer of the Bible. You know what the last words of the Bible are? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. The last words of the Bible.
Significant, isn't it?
As though the capstone over everything that God has said from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation, 22 and verse, I forgot what the verse number is, but up to that last verse. That the whole significance of the entire body of divine revelation is this. That God might bring a display of His grace in the Lord Jesus that will be adequate for all of the needs of sinful creatures who come under the canopy of that grace and its provisions. So in a very real sense, grace.
Is the alpha and omega of the Christian life and experience. The grace of God revealed. The grace of God communicated through the Lord Jesus Christ. So to be ignorant of grace, to feel no need of grace, to fail to revel in grace, is in reality to be estranged from the very heart of the biblical revelation.
What does the word grace do for you? Maybe for some of you, some of you guys, it brings to mind some pretty little face that has the name grace. I don't know. What does it do for you?
Does it set up, as it were, a chain reaction that causes your mind to think of what you were when the Father looked upon you in your sin? When the Son poured out His life unto death upon the cross and the Spirit in His mysterious and powerful work quickened you to life and introduced you to all the power of God. The blessings of the gospel. Does it bring to mind that great panorama of the future that awaits the people of God?
That glorious inheritance preserved in heaven for us? What does the word grace do for you? I suggest that if it doesn't start some kind of chain reaction, if it doesn't cause your heart to at least to begin to leap for joy, then either you're ignorant of that which grace means or you're a stranger to that which grace means. This is an important blessing.
There is no more frequently given blessing in all of scripture than this. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. So much then for the importance of the blessing. Now in the second place, consider with me the meaning of the blessing.
The Meaning of Grace: Undeserved Favor and Its Gifts
What does it mean when the apostle says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you? Must be important. He begins and closes every letter with it. The last words of the Bible.
The Bible are this capstone blessing. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Well, what then does it mean? Two words or two segments that we ought to grapple with.
First of all, the word grace and secondly, of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now it's interesting, as with so many other key words, the Bible does not give us a formal definition of the word grace. Any more than it does of love, faith, many of these other key words. And the word is used in several ways.
As the word love is used in several ways, the word faith is used in several ways. And rather than give us formal definitions, the Bible gives us an expression of what that is in terms of what it does. An example of this is 2 Corinthians 8-9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How do you know it?
Because, he says, in that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. How has God defined grace? Not in abstract definition, but in flesh and blood demonstration. See?
Herein is the love of God manifested. How? Again, not in formal definition, but in that he sent his Son in this visible demonstration. And so, the grace of God is known primarily, not by abstract definition, but by its tangible expression.
What it does, what it reveals, what it brings, what it communicates, what it imparts. It has been formally defined as God's favor to those who deserve the opposite. Another has defined it the gracious will and good pleasure of God to do good to men and to show mercy to the creature. I think one of the most helpful definitions I have found is this, the disposition of undeserved favor in the heart of God and all the gifts which that favor bestows.
Now, do you find that helpful? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. What is grace? That disposition of undeserved favor in the heart of God and all the gifts which that favor bestows.
It is grace which lies at the foundation of our redemption. It is grace which frames the stuff and the materials of which the superstructure is built. And it is grace that puts the capstone upon it all. So if you're tracing our salvation back to its beginning, its first springs, as you have in 2 Timothy 1.9, its spring is grace. He hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. So you trace your salvation back as far as you can into the counsels of God in electing purpose. And there you find its root springs, grace.
You trace our salvation to its final glorification and its culmination. And as you have that analogy in the Old Testament, it will be with shoutings of grace, grace, grace, grace unto it. It is that which comes to its fullest expression in the Gospel and in the Lord Jesus. So Titus, Paul in writing to Titus says in verse 11, The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared.
Grace hath appeared bringing salvation. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth have come by the Lord Jesus, John 1 and verse 17. So the apostle is praying or giving this blessing which is saying, May the Lord grant you the rich abundance of His undeserved favor and all the gifts that it brings. But now why does he call it the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ?
The Meaning of 'Our Lord Jesus Christ': Grace Channeled Through Him
Why doesn't he simply say the grace of God? Is it as though there is no grace in the Father and in the Spirit? And all grace is deposed in the Son? Not at all.
For he began this very epistle with these words. Notice.
Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace by virtue of their union with the Father and the Son. They are in the source of grace and peace, the Father and the Son. Other places, he explicitly states it that way.
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Son. And the Lord Jesus. But though he begins with grace flowing from the Father and the Son, he ends almost exclusively in his blessings with the statement the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the question is why?
For the simple reason that in the outworking of our salvation, the grace that was in the heart of the triune God comes to light and is channeled through the Lord Jesus Christ. So in a peculiar sense, it is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You find this in that apostolic benediction in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 14 where the apostle says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Is there grace in the Father? Certainly. Is there love in the Son? Certainly.
He says greater love hath no man than he lay down his life. I lay down my life for the sheep. Is there no communion except with the Holy Spirit? No.
For in the first epistle he said you are called unto the fellowship of his Son. So these things are not to be boxed up in airtight categories but in the outworking of salvation that which is peculiarly revealed in the Lord Jesus is grace. That which is revealed of the Father is his love and that to which we are brought in our experience is the communion of the Holy Spirit. So he specifically says the grace the undeserved favor and all the gifts that it brings grace that is in a peculiar sense stored up in the Lord Jesus Christ may that grace be with you.
Now it's obvious that he is tying the display of grace inseparably to the history to the historic Christ. He says the grace of our Lord comma Jesus Christ be with you. I just wish somehow you could convey the force of the original in this type of structure. We look at this and we say the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is all the three words Lord Jesus Christ are three names given to the Lord Jesus.
As we would say may the money of John D. Rockefeller be yours. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be yours. But that isn't the way it should be.
It would be better translated if it didn't sound almost irreverent. Now may the grace of our boss and master who is Jesus Christ be with you. The emphasis is upon his Lordship. If I were giving a literal rendition from the original it would be like this.
Now may the grace of the Lord of us Jesus Christ be with you. The emphasis being upon Christ is our Lordship. Our Lord Jesus as our Lord. So the apostle is telling us that whatever grace the people of God receive it comes from the historic Christ.
The one who is Jesus of Nazareth conceived in the womb of the Virgin lived in Nazareth died on Calvary. He is Christ the anointed Messiah who stood in the waters of Jordan and the Spirit of God came upon him without measure who went about healing the sick raising the dead doing good as we read in Acts a man of God approved among you by mighty signs and wonders he is the Lord. The one who burst the bonds of death was exalted to the right hand of the Father into whose hands all authority in heaven and in earth has been committed. And listen any talk of grace any thought of grace divorced from the historic Lord Jesus Christ is absolute baseless foolishness. People have this vague notion somehow God will be favorable to me and God will be kind to me and they have no love for faith in or understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ that's nothing but delusion. The only grace the Apostle Paul knew of and that the Bible respects is grace that is inseparably tied to the historic Christ. Do away with him and you do away with grace.
It's the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ tied to the historic Christ. It's the grace of that person and it's his grace in that it's all stored up in him. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places where in Christ Ephesians 1.4 He's the great depository of all grace.
All is stored up in him. All is revealed by him. John 1.17 Grace and truth came by Jesus Jesus Christ.
All is mediated through him. Of his fullness have we all received and all grace is imparted with him. There's an interesting deviation from the normal phraseology of this blessing in 2nd Timothy and very significant showing that this grace which is stored up in Christ revealed in Christ mediated by Christ is grace that is imparted with Christ. So that when the Father gives him he gives us all grace in him.
Notice the last verse in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 and verse 22 The Lord be with thy spirit grace be with you. As the Lord is with you the full supply of grace is with you for it's the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ stored up in him revealed by him and mediated through him and imparted with him. He that spared not his own son how shall he not also with him give us freely all things. So basically that's the meaning of this blessing.
To summarize it means something like this May God grant you the rich abundance of undeserved gifts gifts purposed in purchased by and imparted through the Lord Jesus Christ. You Thessalonians standing there in the midst of pagan society seeking to be pure in the midst of impurity seeking to have true worship in the midst of idolatry seeking to worship according to the revealed truth of God in the midst of apostate religion. What's your hope? Your hope is that everything you need for life and godliness has been purposed in and purchased by in his own and stored up in and imparted through the Lord Jesus Christ and that which moves him to impart those gifts is his grace. What better New Year's text could you have than that? No matter what you anticipate no matter what you can dream of as the possibilities that lie out there if the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us even if etched in our tombstone will be the date nineteen-thirty 70 we have nothing to fear for by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ even death has been made our friend so much for the setting of the text the importance of
Directive 1: Consider Christ's Glorious Person
the blessing the meaning of the blessing now we come to what I trust will be the heart of its application to us what are the directives of this blessing when the apostle says to the Thessalonians and when the spirit says to us through these words the Lord be the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you what does this call us to I would suggest that in the first place it is a call to consider the Lord Jesus in his glorious person you ever think what this meant the apostle dared to go on record as promising this blessing or pronouncing this blessing on the saints here at Thessalonica the saints at Rome the saints at Ephesus the saints at Colossia suppose you knew someone that everywhere he went he told everybody he saw if you ever get in any financial trouble call my friend Harry here's his card or even better than that handed out some blank checks and just fill them in they're all signed there'll be money there suppose everywhere he went he said if you ever get in any trouble here you are here's a few checks my friend Harry what does this tell about his confidence in Harry's account what does this tell you about his confidence in Harry's disposition it tells you an awful lot about who ever Harry is he's got a large heart and a large bank account and unless this guy is spoofing you he's not fickle he's not going to take it all back after all those checks get spread abroad and all those promises
given well this is precisely what the apostle is doing every time he writes a group of Christians there at Rome grace of our Lord be with you there it is grace of our Lord be with you what does this tell us it tells us something about the person of our Lord Jesus Christ how dare he pronounce a sufficiency of grace in Christ in terms of all the sin all the ignorance all the weakness all the opposition all the problems faced by all the saints in all the Roman Empire what an estimation he has of the Lord Jesus what an estimation and it's a call to us to have the same estimation of Christ that he had this is a wonderful affirmation of Christ deity only God could have such an infinite supply of grace for such diverse needs in so many places it tells us not only of the deity of our Lord but it is intimate concern for all of his people his grace supplied at Rome at Thessalonica at Ephesus to an individual called Titus to one called Timothy to one called Philemon his intimate concern for all of his sheep for he said I know my sheep and my grace is sufficient for every detail of their lives what a call to consider the Lord Jesus in his glorious person as true God
Directive 2: Consider Christ's Plenteous Provision
as the shepherd concerned for his sheep as the one possessed of almighty power to meet every need as the one whose heart is suffused with eternal love binding him to his people so that their needs become his concerns oh may God help us at the start of the new year to look at this blessing and consider in this blessing a call to once again reflect upon the glorious person of our Lord Jesus Christ not only is it a call to reflect upon his glorious person it's a call to consider the Lord Jesus in his plenteous provision the scripture says that in him dwells all the fullness of the God head bodily the word says of him in 1 Corinthians 1 30 he has made unto us wisdom wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption and there's no need that the child of God meets but what the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for that and when you begin to think of all of his children in all of the earth in all of the great complexity of their need and written over all of that is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ what a call to consider his plenteous provision there's a beautiful illustration of this in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 here's one of his children
with a specific need he thought his need was for some kind of release from physical suffering that he thought was an impediment to his service for Christ and so convinced as he was that this was a legitimate need in terms of a legitimate goal I want to be unhampered with this physical impediment that I might serve my God better he goes to the Lord Jesus with the need convinced that the grace of Christ was sufficient he goes to him in prayer he gets no answer he gets no release he goes a second time he goes a third time and after the third time he gets a word from God and I read now 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 8 concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me and he hath said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my power is made perfect in weakness most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses and injuries and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake for when I am weak then am I strong you see what the Lord is saying he said there's plenty of supply in my grace not
only to do what would be relatively easy take away this situation that's causing you concern but to allow the situation to remain and in the midst of it to overcome what is very obvious to you and to others is a deep point of weakness my grace could as it were once for all remove the problem and impart normalcy physically and then you would be a display of my grace to deliver but he said I want to do something that's better for you and for others I want to leave that in you which will say to you and to the world I'm not able to do the job and yet wonder of wonders you'll see yourself performing the job and the world will see you performing the job and the church will see you doing the job and they'll say what's the answer to this and he says there's only one answer the power of Christ resting upon me for when I'm weak when I'm conscious that I cannot then am I strong it's then that the power of Christ rests upon me so you see child of God whatever the need may be whatever the circumstance may be there is plenteous provision in the Lord Jesus for the meeting of that need and so this blessing takes on new meaning for when he says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you it's a call to consider the plenteous provision that is in him that was a great statement and one of the commentators as I was preparing
thinking of this young church and coming back to its more immediate context this is what this commentator said speaking of this blessing he excludes no one from his blessing not even those who've been walking disorderly this is commenting from the blessing at the end of the second epistle where he speaks of some who've been lazy and disorderly etc and setting it not the tradition they receive from him their need is the greatest of all if we had imagination enough to bring vividly before us the condition of one of those early churches we'd see how much is involved in a blessing like this and what sublime confidence it displays in the goodness and faithfulness of our Lord the Thessalonians a few months ago had been heathens they had known nothing of God and of his son they were living still in the midst of a heathen population under the pressure of heathen influences both of thought and conduct beset by numberless temptations and if they were mindful of the country from which they'd come forth not without opportunity to return Paul would have willingly stayed with them to be their pastor and teacher their guide and defender but his missionary calling made it impossible after the merest introduction to the gospel and to the new life to which it calls those who receive it they had been left to themselves who should keep them from falling who should open their eyes to understand the ideal which the Christian
is summoned to in this life amid their many enemies could they look for a sufficient and ever present ally the apostle answers these questions when he writes the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all although he has left them they are not really alone the free love of God which visited them at first when they were yet uncalled will be with them still to perfect the work which it began it will beset them behind and before it will be a sun and a shield to them a light and a defense in all their temptations in all their sufferings in all their moral perplexities in all their despondencies that grace will be sufficient for them there is not any kind of sucker which a Christian needs which is not to be found in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ this text by way of directive is not only a call to consider the Lord Jesus in his glorious provision but to consider the Lord Jesus in his plenteous provision I don't know what this year will hold for me I don't know what it will hold for you a trial of testing within within the circle of our own family in our assembly in the world in society but no matter what it holds there is grace sufficient for us in the Lord Jesus that is true for in him dwelleth all the fullness
Directive 3: Consider Your Relationship to Christ
of the Godhead bodily but the third directive of our text and I want to speak soberly to this this point it's a call to consider the Lord Jesus and our relationship to him is this blessing pronounced upon all men indiscriminately no when the Apostle says at the close of this letter the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you he's speaking only to those who have had the beginnings of grace manifested in their lives in terms of the wording of this letter he's speaking to those who've received the gospel not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance he's speaking to those who've received his word not as the word of men but as the word of God and if this text only has it by way of inference the other blessings make it abundantly clear listen as he pronounces this same blessing in 1st Corinthians chapter 16 he prefaces the blessing of verse 23 with verse 22 verse 23 with verse 22 if any man loveth not our Lord Jesus Christ let him be accursed the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you here's two kinds of people those under the great canopy of grace those under the terrible
canopy of the curse of God if anyone loveth not our Lord Jesus Christ let him be and he reaches into the grab bag of his vocabulary and draws out the strongest word for cursing and he says let him be anachema accursed of God but those who do love him who by grace have been brought to bow before the Son of God the Lord Jesus who by grace have seen a beauty in Christ crucified and glorified that has captured their hearts may the grace of that same Christ continue to be with them this text this blessing is a call to consider our relationship to him I ask you as you come to this new year under which canopy are you found this morning this one roof acts as a canopy to all of us from the elements outside the snow, the cold weather but there are two roofs here this morning the canopy of grace that rests over the head of some the canopy of the wrath and curse of God that rests over others the whole issue is your relationship to Jesus Christ that's it that's it that's the whole issue and oh if another year has come and gone and found you still
wedded to your sins still under the wrath of God still indifferent to the claims of Christ instead of pronouncing a blessing I must be faithful to the whole tenor of scripture and say not the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you but the curse of God is upon you and what a frightful thing wouldn't it be terrible if by some valid authority those who are projecting into the future could say on a program nationally televised and out over the radio station during this coming year America will be found beneath one massive mushroom cloud of nuclear holocaust what a terrible frightful prospect more terrible yet suppose they name the date can you imagine what it would be like to see the days passing knowing that each day was bringing us closer to that mushroom cloud and to the death and devastation and destruction it would bring Americans who had anything other than absolute insanity would desperately do something to try to avoid that awful day
but you know this is exactly what God has said he that believeth not the wrath of God abideth upon him I don't feel any wrath nuclear explosions I'd feel that I'd see that I don't feel I don't see any wrath no my friend but for one reason God in his long suffering and his patience has kept that canopy from crashing down upon you but you're underneath it nonetheless and the moment you're underneath it God in his sovereign design sees fit to take you out of this life that wrath comes crashing down upon your head without relief for all eternity what is your relationship to Jesus Christ have you been brought by grace to love him having discovered your sin and in him the only hope for sinners have you fled to him in repentance and faith casting the weight of your soul upon him giving yourself up to him to be what he would have you to be to take from his hands all the gifts of his grace purchased with his own precious blood your relationship to this church to any other church or any other thing means nothing the great issue is what is your relationship to him
that's the great issue what a terrible thing if all this coming year holds for you is more hardness of heart as you hear the message preached as you're entreated to repent as you're entreated to repent and flee to Christ better word for you that you've never been born than that you pass through another year of hearing the message of mercy and possibly be cut off in your sin well the last thing I want us to consider and very briefly what is the fruit of this blessing we've looked at the setting of it the importance of it the meaning of it the directives of it now what are the fruits of this blessing when by faith we lay hold of all the blessings that's embodied in these words or I should say what little bit we understand of them I told my wife yesterday as I was wrestling with trying to prepare to preach I said it's an awful hard thing to preach on some text and this is one of them I feel that I've just as it were scratched the surface of the surface but if we've scratched together and we've gotten just a little bit of the substance of what's bound up in that and in faith we face the coming year with that confidence that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ having been revealed to us in the cross
The Fruit of the Blessing: A Peaceful Conscience and Powerful Witness
and in his laying hold of us and in the beginnings of the operations of his grace that grace is with us and upon us and before us and is adequate for every need what will be the fruit of that blessing received in faith well the blessings will primarily come to light in the realm of the spiritual for three times when the apostle pronounces this blessing he specifically states the Lord Jesus Christ or the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit in other words the main sphere of the operations of the grace of Christ is inward not outward in the heart not primarily in the material realm just as God's kindness operates in the realm of the external sending rain upon the just and the unjust but the peculiar operation of grace is in those things particularly purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ and so the fruit of this blessing will be such things as a peaceful conscience what but the grace of God can cause a man who takes seriously the character of God and something of the nature of sin what can ever bring peace to a conscience enlightened by the truth of God and human sin what can bring peace to that conscience
but the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and wonder of wonders child of God you can walk through this coming year in spite of your falling in spite of your sin in spite of your failure with a conscience void of offense to God and man through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the fruit of this blessing is that kind of experience the blessing of a peaceful conscience the blessing of a life that commends the power of the gospel the blessings that will enable you as a husband and a father to have the respect of your children so that even if they hate your Christ they'll be confessed to acknowledge the reality of your relationship to Him it will force that unconverted husband or wife though perhaps balking against your Christ to acknowledge the reality of His power operative in your life the grace that will attend the labors of this assembly with so much grace with so much grace with such power that sinners shall be smitten with conviction of sin and without any of the trappings and gimmicks that are thought necessary to evangelism the preaching of the word in the context of a prayerful assembly will be owned of God to smite sinners with conviction and cause them to seek the Lord in a way of repentance and faith
that's the blessing that's the fruit of the blessing coming to light in the realm of the Spirit how do you face this? this year that is before you do you have a peaceful conscience? I didn't say a deceived conscience or a seared conscience but a conscience that can hold itself up to the full light of God's countenance and the full light of God's law and aware of its sin walk away in peace because through the grace of Christ you found cleansing in His precious blood and you're able to draw near with boldness having your heart strong and strong sprinkled from an evil conscience as we read in Hebrews 10 do you have that blessing? if not there is grace sufficient in the Lord Jesus that you may leave even this morning if you deal honestly with God with the blessing of a peaceful conscience we're going to deal tonight with more fully as to what must sometimes be that humbling path we have to walk in order to have a conscience void of offense to man as well as to God but these are the blessings we as God's people can know the uncertainties and all the rest what do they matter in reality if we know that there is grace sufficient in the person of our Lord and provision adequate in Him with all my heart
as one of God's under shepherds of this flock I would say that my New Year's wish for all of you is the blessing of this text the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and if you have that you have all that's necessary but without it my friend I wouldn't want to be in your shoes for a thousand worlds let us pray
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This is the primary text, the concluding benediction of Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, which Martin expounds as a New Year's blessing.
Texts Expounded
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