Oh, praise the Lord. Would you have your Bibles and stand with me? Open it up to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Our text for this morning is verses 13 to 16. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 13 to 16. I've entitled this message, Religion that Honors and Dishonors God. verses 13 to 16 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 this is the reading of God's Word for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you receive the Word of God which you heard from us you accepted it not as the Word of men but for what it really is the Word of God which also performs its work in you who believe for you brethren became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea for you also endure the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. With the result that they always fill up to the measure of their sins, but wrath has come upon them to the utmost. Amen. Please be seated. I recently came into the news that Warren Buffett charges $50,000 to individuals to sit down with him for one hour. $50,000. And Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have fundraising dinners that are $2,000 a head. It seems that there's not enough money that people are willing to part with to meet with famous people, meet with people that they value and the opinions and ideas that they treasure. at the same time it is amazing to me to see many people and even religious people value so little the word of God I met so many people who say yeah I'm a Christian but they've never read the Bible never not once have read the Bible I've also met people who criticize the Christian faith who've never read the Bible on the Berkeley campus I met actually professors and students alike who have never ever read the Bible one time. That's surprising to me that they would value the words of men so much at the same time they would see absolutely no value, no lasting value, no preciousness in the Word of God. Unlike the psalmist who said, I treasure your word more than silver and gold. It's amazing to me that even professing religious people who do not treasure the Word of God. they would meditate upon the lyrics of a pop song, a love song, or even poetry, or even some declaration or some oath of a club. But many, even professing believers, probably can't recite a dozen or a hundred Bible verses from memory. It seems that they would meditate upon so many things except the treasure of the Word of God. You know, my great burden is for the religious, not for the irreligious. It is for those people who say that, yeah, I know Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but bread works fine for me. Not by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. It seems that with all of our resources and versions and Bibles and lexicons and concordances and access to original languages and history, that there is a dearth of spiritual food in the land. There is a famine of the Word of God because men value words of men, futile, impotent, finite words of men more than the eternal Word of God. And that's a great sadness. I want to read a little passage for you from the study Bible. And it's a beautiful poetry to the excellencies of the Word of God. It's not Psalm 119, but it is the Word of God in a summary. I want you to hear it. The Bible. This book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrine is holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be saved, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's charter. Here heaven is open and the gates of hell are disclosed. Christ is the grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth. health to the soul and a river of pleasure it is given to you here in this life will be open at the judgment and is established forever involves the highest responsibility will reward the greatest labor and condemn all who trifle with its contents a pretty good summary I think of the Bible not today somebody who actually believe this and felt this way about this book the Word of God than any other books more books have been written about the Bible, more songs have been written about the excellencies of God and the word of God, more poems, more lives, more nations changed because of the word of God than anything else. And yet today, why is there a famine? Well, because it seems that men in the voice and the opinion of sincerity and diligence have a lot of religion, But unfortunately, it's a religion that dishonors God, that hinders the progress of truth, and that is abhorrent to His holiness. It is a direct assault on the will of God and the plan of God, and it is, at best, a diversion and distortion of the clarity and the truth of God's revelation. There's a lot of religion in the name of man. There's a lot of churches that want to please and appeal to men, but very little the kind of religion that God is pleased with. And so in light of that, when we have just read from the book here in the Bible, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, we see a young church, which is a dynamic church. That completely dispels this notion you have to be at least a certain amount of years old in Christ to be mature or maturing or be fruitful. That completely dispels that notion that Thessalonian believers were genuine, fruitful, dynamic, and a model church even from early years. Why? What's their secret? How come they have the dynamics while the church of Laodicea and church of Ephesians and five other churches in the book of Revelation are rebuked? Why are they praised? Why is Paul overflowing with thanksgiving as he thinks about the Thessalonians? But why was he grieving and hurting when he thought about the Corinthians? What's the difference? Well the difference is very clear here it's given it is how they responded to God's word and ultimately how they respond to God through the word of God you see we read his word to fall in love with the author and these Thessalonians were in deep love and commitment to the author they met God they had a living relationship with God and let us not trifle with that term religion many of us have a false notion that we think the word religion is a dirty word I don't have religion I have relationship many say well your relationship doesn't mean anything if it's not faith in practice and religion is faith in practice it is not a dirty word and so God is looking for true religion scripture says the true religion in the practice of your piety in your faith and your commitment to Christ must be practical as ministering to the lowest rung of society in the name of Christ. If we can minister and love people who are undesirable and unlovable, then we fulfill the second great commandment. But we better fall in love with the Lord Jesus and our God who gave us the first great commandment to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. We're going to see two things Paul mentions here which are marks of good religion, religion that honors God, a religion of truth, And then contrast that with bad religion, a religion that dishonors God, whose sole purpose is to hinder God's work, and who is hostile to true religion, hostile to God. And I want to introduce you to the human author of this letter, Paul, who was at one time hindering, hostile, and he had bad religion. But the man that God transformed now, he is honoring God. honoring his word, and now his true religion. And so this comes from his own personal life and experience, and God wants us to see what kind of religion, what kind of a spiritual life that we practice that honors him. First, verse 13, true religion honors God through his word, honors God's word. Paul says for this reason we also constantly thank God. He's picking up the theme of Thanksgiving that he talked about in chapter 1. He constantly thanks God as he thinks about the Thessalonians that when you receive the Word of God which you heard from us Paul uses two verbs to talk about how the Thessalonians responded to the preaching of God's Word. One word is receive which points to the objectivity of the Word of God received and then The Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it. He uses another verb, accept, which talks about their wholehearted receiving. They welcomed the Word of God. They didn't simply respond to it by saying, all right, we'll give it some time, we'll hear what you have to say. They said, we want more of that. Can you teach us more? Can you speak more? Can you reveal to us the mysteries of God more? We've heard messages about men, read books written by men, for men, about men, but this is not for men. this is divine. We can tell the difference. There's power, there's reality, there's truth behind these words. Can you please preach more? That was the response that Paul and his cohorts got from the Thessalonians. This is the big difference. The difference is most people are willing to hear just out of curiosity and put up with the time. But the true, the thirsty, the godly want more of it. They want to feast in it. It is not that they're going through Costco, sampling a little here, a little there, and then passing by. They're at this feast, and they say, keep it coming, because I want more. There's something about the Word of God. You feast on it more, and you're hungrier. You drink it to your fill, and you're thirstier. It generates its own desire. Your appetite for spiritual things grows. Conversely, the more you fill your life with trivialities, superficialities, and fleshly things, the appetite for the spiritual things decreases. why is it that one at one church at Corinth there's a fleshly appetite that takes away the relish for the word of God and at Thessalonica and other places there is a hungering that's there and I cannot tell you why that is but God can tell you that is by sovereign grace that he allows the word of God to be delicious believable and people are open have opened their eyes and see its true value A piece of a rock to most of us would look like a piece of a rock, but to a gemologist, he would see the incalculable wealth and money and value that's associated with that rock, if it is a precious gem. And it's that way. To many people, religion, Bible, church, Christianity just sounds so common, ordinary, drabby. That's because they're blinded by sin. They're calloused in their hearts by the weight of sin. They're dulled in their senses. And because so many have justified their own actions and they see themselves happily passing day by day thinking that God is well pleased with them when they are marking their own graves and writing their own wills straight down to hell. And to moral man who sets up his own moral standards, this is just repugnant that God is the ultimate and not man. that the Bible is his revelation and not man's creation, that Christian religion is not a phony man-made system of control, like many critics have said, but is a living, thriving organism, a spiritual force by God, and is a trace of his handiwork. Hmm. Let's take a look at what Paul says. When you receive the word of God, you accepted it. Let me ask you this question. Are you wholeheartedly accepting it? Have you accepted it that way? If you did, it will bear fruit. If you did not, you will not bear fruit. Are you eagerly longing for it? Or are you rejecting it because you believe that you have the right and the capacity to judge God's Word. You place yourself in the throne of God where God rightly belongs. You become God and you're going to judge God's Word instead of being judged by the Word of God. That's how arrogant and prideful we really are in our sin and blinded we really are. Our claim of autonomy and independence is simply repugnant to God. And we are a direct violation of His holiness. And how can we escape his judgment when we think like that and we say I'll judge for myself whether this is of God or not. Now this is the beginning point. This is the point where Satan had deceived Eve and Adam in the garden and he said you determine for yourself whether what God said is true or not for you. It's the ultimate temptation to play God. You will be like God knowing good and evil. No they won't. They've let all of us down. to a fallen humanity, and our heart is hostile toward God. Listen to what the Word of God says about your heart and mine before regeneration, before salvation. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. There's absolutely no capacity for anyone in his right and in his natural state for him to want to submit to anything, or subject to God, certainly not. It's hostile. So how is it that the Word of God is believable to some, while to the great majority, unbelievable? Unbelievable. And that to me is unbelievable. That they would read a magazine article and say, hey, I believe that. And they would open up the scriptures and say, I don't believe that. Where they're more critical of the Word of God than they are of the newspapers. That they're so willing to believe all the superficial writings of men but they're so overly critical of the Word of God. Isn't that amazing? And how is it that we have the opposite experience? It's because of what God did in our hearts, is it not? What does Paul say? You didn't receive it as the words of men. How can unbelieving Gentiles hear the preaching from few Jewish men, one half Gentile, half Jew, coming into their town, strangers, and all of a sudden, them talking, And they assess, this is from God. How is that possible? It's impossible by human standards, but it's exactly what happened. Because the power of the Holy Spirit convinced them this is of God. The Holy Spirit quickened their hearts, removed the scales from their eyes, and the hardness from their hearts, and the curtain of blindness from their minds to perceive what God's Word really is. But for what it really is... blinded and incapable. The very Word of God says, you're not God, I am. That's just hostile to the autonomous man. You're not independent, you're dependent. As a matter of fact, you're so dependent that if I remove your capacity to breathe, you're dead. If I cut you off from your mother's womb, you're no more. If I give you an incurable disease, your life will be miserable. And even if you live a full life and successful life, you will face me in judgment. That is repugnant. That's unacceptable to a self-centered man. But that's exactly the basis for the gospel. This is exactly what Paul had proclaimed to the Thessalonians. You are in your sins, you need to repent, you need to turn to God. And they accepted that as the word of God. This phrase here, the Word of God, appears 45 times in the New Testament, and we are certain where it comes from. It's Word of God. Its origin is divine. And its authority is absolute, because God is absolute. Which also performs its work in you who believe. Do you see that? These are not just mere religious words. This is the power of God, because this is God's truth. Isaiah 55 8 for my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways declares the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts your thoughts for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making a bear and sprout and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater so will my word be which goes forth from my mouth it will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without success succeeding in the matter for which I sent it if we can figure out the cycles of hydrology of evaporation condensation and precipitation and rainfall that we need for our crops and we see it grow we can figure that out these forces are there and they work we can certainly figure out that when God speaks forth it will accomplish and that's why the church of Jesus Christ cannot be eliminated cannot be killed because the word of God says it will continue to survive and thrive because Jesus Christ is building his church that's the only reason why in the midst of all this persecution and death and killing for just for the sake of religion that the church survives that Christians come out of all fields now today there are so many Christians proportionally getting safe from the Muslim world than ever before in all of the centuries combined. There's not a military might that can conquer the soul, the sinful condition of the heart. There's no financial institution that can rescue our moral bankruptcy and our spiritual emptiness. There's no technological or medical solution that could remove this sick sin disease from us. But the Word of God does everything and much, much more. Why? Because it is the power of God. It is the power of God. But this power is withheld from those who are unbelieving and hardened in their hearts. But to the ones who are believing, it is the power of God. So the godly not only welcome the word with gladness, they want more of it. They take it in. They want hearty portions. And they're not just satisfied with just tasting. They want the full meal. 1st Peter 2.2 it says, like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. And so the godly, the ones with an appetite and wanting to grow, they want hearty portions. I guarantee you that the Thessalonian Christians wanted to hear more and more and more of Paul. In the short time that he was there, it seems that Paul had already taught them about soteriology, theology proper, Christology, and all the way to eschatology. in a short amount of time the Thessalonians were able to handle not only the milk but the meat and that's why they're so strong and stable Psalm 11 how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers but his delight is in the law of the Lord and such were the Thessalonians they delighted in it and on his law he meditates day and night constantly they were thinking about the truth, the substance of God's Word. Jeremiah 17 7, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. They began to trust in the author of scripture, not in men, not in themselves. The Thessalonian believers honor God by receiving the message from the messengers of God. They recognize that's God's message, these must be God's messengers, they receive Paul and his cohorts, they receive the message not as of men but as what it actually is of God. Next time you come to a Bible study and you don't feel like studying the scriptures, you don't feel like going there, you want to skip out, then remember this. What are you substituting it with? Let the Word of God indict us. I stay awake through the watches of the night so that I can meditate upon your precepts, the psalmist says. You love sleep more than feasting on God's Word? Then sleep. Your word is more precious to me than fine gold and silver. You love money and wealth more than the word of God? Then work for money and not see the value of the word of God. Your word is sweeter to my taste, more sweeter than honey. You don't have an appetite for the word of God? Then keep consuming the cultural garbage of our generation. No, no, that won't do for the appetite of the godly. The Thessalonians received the Word of God as the Word of God's value. They wanted more. They kept going after it. And that's why the dynamic, personal, vibrant spiritual life was a testament to the honor of God, because they honor God. That's the kind of religion that honors God. People who have no time for God and His Word, no time for corporate worship, the proclamation of the Word of God, Bible study, quiet times, books that help us to learn more about God's Word, a deeper appetite and spiritual hunger, and yet they will substitute with everything else that they think is more valuable than God and His Word. There's an indictment to our emaciated generation, our spiritually lax generation. When we welcome God's Word, we honor God. True religion is a true religion and that is a good religion that honors God and is marked by proper response to the Word of God and ultimately to God through His Word. Secondly, true religion, the religion that honors God, good religion, always hangs on despite the difficulties. It is a persevering religion. It is not what you believe today and then forsake tomorrow. That was never genuine faith. Verse 14, for you brethren, that opens up a warm encouragement. Warm encouragement so that Paul could encourage those who are undergoing some very strong persecution and difficulty because of their faith. And it's hard for us in the Western world, especially in America, because we have so much religious and freedoms and freedom of speech. It's so hard for us to understand that in Saudi Arabia, preaching the gospel is a capital crime. You can get killed for that. They'll kill you for that. It's hard for us to believe that hundreds of thousands of Christians die every year just because they're Christians. It's very difficult for us to imagine that there are actually people who are having their homes burned, their churches burned, and their property confiscated, beaten, and even thrown in jail for just being a Christian, just having a Bible. It's hard for us to imagine Christian people for studying the Bible and the next thing they know they're sent to concentration camps. to suffer for the next 25 years. Hard to imagine why there would be such difficulty for Christians. If that's the kind of Christianity that Jesus commanded us to pursue, to pick up the cross and then follow after Him, I would say that most people would abandon it. And that's why I believe that persecution and suffering is such a purifying antidote to our spiritual laxity. Most of the quibbles that we have in the church will be gone if there was true persecution for our faith. And, you know, we speak as if it is in the distant, distant future or something that we'll never see. Let us pray, Christian, that you and I are wrong in our gut instinct of how rapidly and morally our culture is declining and how these pressures are mounting, how there's a caricaturing hostility against our faith in public sphere. and our people are openly hostile to Christ, the Bible, and Christianity. But that's nothing new. For 2,000 years, Christians have been the greatest persecuted group in the history of mankind. Hebrews 11.37, they were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated. That's just a small sample of what the Old Testament saints went through. We've all heard the phrase, blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. And we heard the term underground, and we use it metaphorically. Oh, there's an underground church in China. Believe me, there is no such thing as an underground church in China. Believe me, there isn't. That's a metaphoric term. The first persecuted Christians in Rome were literally underground. They dug holes under the ground and lived in human beehives so they would continue to worship God. Hostility against Christ and his gospel has continued from the very beginning until now. There's a cosmic spiritual battle going on and we've been inscripted into the army of God. And our enemy hates true religion. They will do everything to stop the truth from being pronounced even. As I was teaching biblical creation and teaching the freshmen for several years now at the UC Berkeley campus during our Bible study time, I've come into some interesting organizations that specifically exist to get guys like me and everybody else out of the public school system. There's actually a government-funded organization, full-time jobs and positions available to people who would want to seek out, to search and destroy, and make sure that no Christian would ever lecture in the halls of public education. And it is an awesome reality when you look at it, the spiritual battles that's out there. There are lobbyist groups, there are powerfully funded organizations that want to stop adoption. And Christian uh... idea of crisis pregnancy counseling an abortion clinic uh... and and we want to fight against those kinds of things the impasse the infanticide their organizations powerful lobbyist millions millions of dollars has been promoted to stop the truth about these kinds of teaching and these ideologies of truth in the public sphere they don't even want us to speak and that's just in america in so many other places they're forced to be silent the pain of imprisonment or death so true religion hangs on despite the suffering notice what Paul says for you brethren he warmly encourages you became the imitators you mimic the churches of God notice the plural it points to the fact that there are many local congregations. They are churches of God. But the term Ekklesia here in the Greek was often used by the Jews to talk about their synagogues. Ekklesia to Theou. We are the assembly of God, they would call it. But make no mistake, Paul adds in the clarification, in Christ Jesus. That's it. This is Christian organization. This is a Christian fellowship. Local churches that are in Judea. Judea, this is Palestine. This is first century Jewish stronghold. The first Christians were all Jews. First disciples were all Jews. The first 3,000 that were saved were Jews, both from native and Hellenistic Jewish world. The next 4,000, Jews. The Levites, Jews. Believers were Jews, and they all faced persecution from their own countrymen. John 16.2, the Lord Jesus prophesied that they would. they will make you outcast from the synagogue but an hour is coming when everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God that was Rabbi Saul remember that guy who became Paul who is the human author of this epistle he was the poster boy for all Jewish moms son I want you to be like him when you grow up Rabbi Saul look at that guy he got his training under Gamaliel which is equivalent to Harvard Law School PhD under the best professor available at that time. He grew up in Tarsus, which was the height of academia, even surpassing that of Athens in the Greco-Roman world. Intelligentsia, pedigree, wealth, position, most likely a junior member of the Sanhedrin. He had everything going for him. And the next thing you know, all Jewish moms are saying, oh, watch out for that guy. Don't be like him, that traitor Saul. Don't be like him. He's a turncoat. He's a Christian. It's the same man. He understood this kind of persecution. He faced it every day. Paul knew that people were deceived, blinded by their empty religious zeal, just like what he had, like many Muslims do today. Paul was hostile, and he was an agent of Satan, and he thought he was gloriously serving God. How blinded he was. God indeed causes all things to work together for good and God even used Paul's blind, zealous evil for God's glory and for Paul's good. Thessalonians became a pure church because of suffering. They became purified. They were a stronger church because they had endured tribulation. Look at what Paul says, for you also endure the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen. the same spiritual enemy who's at work among the religious Jews in Judea and Palestine were also at work among the pagan Gentiles just as the communist and secular totalitarian governments of today are just as brutal as there are our Hindus and Buddhists and Muslim countries and societies and cultures that attack true Christians They were a wiser church because they relied upon God's Word and His Spirit. They experienced what Joseph experienced. Joseph said, what you meant for evil, God meant it for good. And so Thessalonians welcome persecution. They say, okay, this is purifying us. All these half-hearted people are leaving. Okay, great. They're genuine believers here. And we're a stronger church. We're a healthier church. We're a wiser church. We won't rely on human resources, but upon God. God is actually working amongst us. That was the kind of an attitude and perspective that this young congregation had because they received the Word of God with joy. No wonder Paul had so much to be thankful for. And so they became imitators, and they said, we're not the only ones, guys. Our brethren in Judea, they pioneered before us, and they faced a lot of persecution. This is not unique to our experience. They comforted themselves as they realized that. And Paul reminded them, you also endure the same suffering the same kind. So here we have a glimpse of the kind of true religion, good religion, real religion that God is honored by, that honors His Word and that hangs on even during suffering and difficulty. Now the rest of the passage, Paul lets us know the kind of false religion that is hostile to God, false religion that dishonors God, that tries to hinder God's work. Look at verse 15. He mentioned the Jews. That's the unbelieving Jewish religious people. And incidentally, by the way, religious people are far more hostile than irreligious, non-religious. If you look at the European history, it was the organized religious people that killed more true believers than any other group. They're the ones who funded the terrible crusades. and gave hearty approval and stamps of approval and even promised that the victors the generals and the kings who would go to war for them to conquer the holy lands of the Mohammedans they would say that they would exalt as princes of Europe it was horrible and who gave the hearty approval the organized church the Roman Catholic Church corrupt church, but with few genuine believers within. And so this is no big surprise to us that an organized Jewish false religious system is now doing the greatest danger and greatest act of hostility against God and his people. Verse 15, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out. Here you have the full gamut. The King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the prophets, the Old Testament servants, and now the New Testament servants. And then Paul says they are not pleasing to God. The preponderance of biblical evidence in the Gospel and Acts shows that the unbelieving religious Jews killed the faithful and godly prophets as well as Jesus Christ our Lord. However, we must zoom out from this microscopic view of this passage and to see the full panoply of what the entire Scripture teaches us about the death of Jesus. First of all, Judas betrayed Jesus to die. The religious leaders handed him over to the Romans to die. The politicians Herod and Pontius Pilate gave acquiescence, overlooked the law of Romans and had Jesus crucified to die. The Roman soldiers were the actual ones who nailed Jesus to the cross, pierced Him to double check that He actually died. And yet the same Bible tells us that Jesus voluntarily gave up His life. And that, here's a shocker, God the Father put Jesus to death. And that all the world is guilty and responsible for Jesus' death. The Bible teaches all these things. The ultimate responsibility lies with us. Ultimate glory goes with God. God can choose a wicked, evil, and contemptuous decisions and acts of men for His glory and for our good. That's what's amazing about God's sovereignty. To persecute God's prophets, therefore, according to the Old Testament, is to persecute God. To persecute Christians is to persecute Jesus Christ. So these hostile Jews, no matter how sincere they may have appeared on the surface, were not. They were not sincere at all. They were wicked. And they are not pleasing to God, Paul says. How wickedly corrupt are false religionists who with all manner of wickedness and even with all manner of malice try to persecute true believers in the name of representing God and doing His will. In the name of God they persecute. This is the great evil about evil religion. And that's why I shared with you and I shared with others that religious people are more corrupt. They're bound to hell. There are a lot of religious people, sincere religious people going to hell, in hell already and they're going. Simply because they're hostile to God. And so this is nonsense that we say, oh, you know, a religion is good for society. All religions teach the same good moral virtues and it's good. That is a damnable lie. Religious people are some of the most corrupt and depraved people. We're all depraved. There's more depravity in religiously committed people. And of course, I will need to qualify that because many of you may not believe that. But how wickedly corrupt are false religionists who do all this evil in the name of religion, in the name of God, in the name of doing God's will, all they're doing is being deceived and doing the will of their father Satan. They're devilish. Just look at European history. Look at all the popes and all the priests and all the corruption that went on. How many godly saints have died in the hands of these religionists? Look at the seven woes that Jesus pronounced against the false pharisaic Jewish religionists. These unbelieving Jews were of the same kind actually They were the prototypes of all false religious hostility toward God. Paul says these Jews were hostile to all men. Spiritually speaking, they were not helping men at all, but hostile to all men because only the gospel can help men. Only the gospel can bring life to men. And they're trying to stop the gospel and stop those who preach the gospel. So they were hostile to all men. hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. There are people who do not want you to know the truth. They could be parents, and they're well-meaning people. Oh, I don't want my kids to fall into that religious mess. I know a lot of parents who've said that. Actually, my parents were attending church, were religious, and not one day did they emphasize that I would love God or read the scriptures or pray. Deep inside they wanted me to pursue worldly endeavors until God opened their eyes and saw that mistake. You know, some of the dead religion that we inherit are from our parents. As well-meaning as they are, and this is the great shock about religious people, they realize they've been hindering the very progress, the very salvation of their own children. That's exactly what the Jews were doing. their own community, the religious leaders were stopping people from entering into the kingdom of God. So Paul says, they're hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles even. Forget the Jewish, so Paul didn't go to the Jews because they rejected it. Now he's going to the Gentiles and they're following him along. And using, they're sending the best of them, the legally trained, and the money, the fund, and these people are actually following Paul's trails, visiting the cities where he was, and using the political system to get the leaders to persecute the preachers. How do you like that? There's nothing new today. There are organizations, well-funded, powerful spiritual institutions all in the name of good for the society that are persecuting the truth. I do not want you to hear the gospel. The great hostility is religious hostility and religious organization and leadership of these organizations to hinder the gospel. The number one organization in Russia today that is trying to prevent the gospel from going out is ironically the Russian Orthodox Church. They call themselves the Orthodox, but it's dead orthodoxy. It's satanic. When you're preventing people from organizing and hearing the Bible preached, putting the pressure on pastors, calling them cultists, The greatest hostility, unfortunately, have been the organized, the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, and it still is in Latin America. Dr. Dick Mayhew from TMS, the Master Seminary, writes this. In effect, they attempted to gag God. Bold attempt to gag God, to silence God, to stop Him from revealing. from speaking." Of course you can't do that. Not only can you not do that, you will incur the harshest of penalties. Listen to what Paul says next. The outcome of this dastardly deed hindering hearing... allowing other people to hear the Word of God that they may be saved is this, the outpouring of the extent, the full extent and the severity of the wrath of God. with the result that they always fill up to the measure of their sins. The unbelieving Jews in Judea were guilty of all the blood of all the godly remnant of God from beginning of salvation history from righteous Abel, the first martyr to the last Old Testament martyr, Zechariah, the son of Berechiah. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 23 verse 34 and on. therefore behold I'm sending you prophets and wise men and scribes some of them you will kill and crucify and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues persecute from city to city so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth from the blood of the righteous able to the blood of Zechariah the son of Berechiah whom you murdered between the temple and the altar." He will fault the generation of the ultimate penalty that crucified their Savior and Messiah, the greatest of all prophets, God the Son, Jesus Christ. And God says, your generation is guilty of all martyrdom. Wow. You try to stop God's Word from going forth. You try to Be little, your family members, your friends, workmates, you will incur the strictest punishment of God. God wants men and women to hear his truth. Jesus said, do not let the little children from coming to me, do not hinder them, but such as these belong to kingdom of heaven. He wanted the little ones to hear him. He wanted the little ones to know him. From the youngest to the oldest, God wants his truth. proclaimed to them. But these same Judeans who are persecuting Paul and his missionary cohorts are also going around stopping the Thessalonians and others from hearing. And so Paul writes this not as a severe indictment to the Jews, but mostly to encourage the Thessalonians that what they're facing, the opposition that they're facing, the difficulty and the suffering that they're going through is nothing new. And so Paul reminds them God is not idle. He is the ultimate judge. He says, the wrath has come upon them to the utmost. Those who reject the gospel or refuse to let it be preached will know the eternal wrath of God to the extreme degree God has promised it. And the apostle Paul uses the strongest words to describe that. Wrath has come upon them. Notice he uses the indicative mood here in the Greek. instead of the subjunctive mood. Not the wrath may come upon them but wrath has come. He uses the aorist tense of the verb and not the future tense. The wrath will come. He says wrath has come. It is so certain that you must think of its corollary. It is certain that God and His wrath is poured upon those who oppose and who are hostile to Him and the gospel but is also equally certain that those who are in Christ have been protected and saved from the coming wrath. That's also equally certain. So this passage is both to indict and clearly show the deserving wrath of the hostile enemies of God, but also at the same time encouraging those who are faithful to Christ, who have been saved from the wrath of God. I said before that Religious people are more corrupt than the irreligious. Organized religions are the most dastardly groups used by Satan than any other group. It is a pit of hell. Romans chapter 1 verse 21 says, For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, nor gave thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened, professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures." Have you noticed how angry the wrath of God is upon those who did a wholesale transfer and exchange of the glory incorruptible God the beauty and the value of the eternal God and they exchange it for these horribly corrupt things and what did God do? God gave them over to the exchange of the glory of man to do what is shameful and detestable and is equally fitting of divine talionic justice, is it not? Because men refuse to worship God and God's glory not recognized God allowed man to be corrupt in his own glory. Our sexuality is our glory. It's what makes us man and woman, a boy and a girl. It's innate to our humanness. It's a beautiful thing that God brought a man and a woman together in marriage to share the most intimate lives together, to, through that love, bring forth new life on earth as a fruit of the womb, the blessing between a husband and a wife. That glory has now been corrupted in our culture, just look at our culture, it's addicted to sex and immorality, is it not? Is it not also true that the inversion of homosexuality is the most detestable and shameful thing? Even as they want to be accepted in public, they're ashamed of its realities and most people are repulsed by it because it is the corruption of the glory of our humanness. Just because man fail to recognize God and His worth, God says I will not recognize, not preserve, not validate your glory. God is not idle in His judgment. This is a parenthetical remark to encourage young believers in Thessalonica. God is already judging. God's judging America. Do you not see it? His patience has a limit. The grace of God has limitation in his duration it's not forever and that's what we discover that's that's what's fearful about god and about the opportunity that we have to repent and turn to him but is because of his patience we are safe or what would happen if if god judge mankind nineteen eighty six i have we've been hell i'll be in hell but because he was patient they allowed me to come to confront his holiness and i realize my wretchedness I asked God to forgive me of my sins. And God was patient and gracious. And so He's patient with you. That's why He's patient with your friends and your family members. He's still patient. If He brought judgment yesterday, where would some of you be? What if He brought judgment before? So don't be so quick to ask God to judge those people around you that need judgment. God is not like you or me. He is patient. So, we can endure persecution. We can be patient through religious persecution even. And we know that those who trust in Christ are secure in their salvation. Just as those who oppose and are hostile to Christ and attack His truth, knowingly God has reserved the harshest judgment. And so Paul reminds the Thessalonians that God is not idle. He is the judge. He has judged. and yet they are preserved from judgment. Do you honor His Word? And then you'll honor Him. Are you hanging on to your faith even when things are difficult, when family members persecute you and say, why do you believe in that nonsense? I know many of our brethren in Taiwan have faced that kind of persecution just because they believe. Many friends are forced to worship in secret because they're persecuted. Or are you hostile? Are you hostile to the gospel? Are you hostile to the truth? You are if you refuse to expose your children to the truth of the word of God. If you hinder them from serving the Lord. If you give them worthless religious routines, and you call that Christianity. If you do not live yourself consecrated before the Lord, loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loving your fellow brothers and sisters whom you see, your children will not follow your examples either. Some of the most hostile, ardent enemies of Christ are religious people. Joseph Stalin, the great butcher of Russia, who was probably singularly responsible for killing more than 60 million people of his own countrymen, at least 40 million of his own countrymen, even by their own Russian statistics. Joseph Stalin was a seminary student. the reason why Lennon hired Stalin is because he hated God and he knew more about God than anybody in his cabinet Charles Darwin he finished seminary training he didn't go into the ministry and get ordained but he finished he has the same degree that I have and he's the father of evolutionary lies he slowly abandoned his faith some of the most ardent atheist and corrupt individuals are now teaching in some of the most liberal Christian theological seminaries in America and there are corrupting young minds young people go to these seminaries they come out as atheists or professing believers who are more dangerous than any atheist could be there's a recruitment center for hostile Special forces for Satan these liberal seminaries are You know religion is so dangerous Religion without truth is the archenemy to the religion that honors God a Religion that does not honor God's Word It's poison to the church Poison and so the church must insist that the Word of God be honored be proclaimed, consistently taught, and practiced. That is our duty. If we don't do that, we will become like the Laodicean church, lukewarm, just like the world, no difference, like so many professing churches here in America today. But we won't ask for persecution, but we'll gladly hang on through it, right? We'll endure it, because Christ went through the cross, It is through the cross there is glory. It's through persecution and difficulty there is sanctification, purity, strengthening, and deeper love for God and for one another. Let me tell you, the church will let go of these superficial, useless quibbles if there was true persecution. We would love one another and appreciate one another. Even across denominational lines we would. We would. But such as we are here today. For our church we must understand and we must honor God and His word hang on when things get tough and not bail out because God has given us a persevering faith and then we must recognize the true hostility may not be open and vicious and malicious but it could be a subtle and dangerous if it tries to attack and stop and dilute and muddy the progression of the gospel and the word of God and God will deal with that but let us deal with the religion that honors God. I pray that you would be encouraged and that you would put this into practice and continue to honor God. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your truth. Thank you for preserving your truth. Thank you for building your church. Help us to be Christians who honor you, not with dead religion, not with systems of tradition passed down by ancestors, but knowing that we have been purchased with the precious blood. May we be slaves of Jesus Christ honoring him honoring you through our obedience to your word and making sure that we even transmit our faith to the next generation and beyond that they would also honor you. Father may we not grow weary and tired even when things get difficult and trials and persecutions come but help us to rejoice for we know that we are not the only ones nor the kind of difficulty we facing Something that's difficult to handle, for we know that godly saints throughout the history have been martyred for their faith and still are being today. Teach us, Lord, therefore, to be content, rejoice, and help us to be like the Thessalonian church. Honor you in your word, to hang on when it's difficult, and to avoid all forms of hostility that dares to take you and your glory away. Lord, we thank you that you are the judge of the whole earth, and we commit these things to you, and trusting that you will continue to build your people. Now, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, our Father, and fellowship of the communion of the Holy Spirit be upon all the saints who desires to honor the Lord with their lives, and by honoring God and his word, to hear and obey it, and to proclaim it. Be from now and forevermore. comment.