The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, August 16, 2009, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now I would ask you to turn with me to 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians, and I shall read the relatively brief first chapter of 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 1. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy unto the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and patience or endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election, because our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. even as you know what manner of men we showed ourselves toward you for your sake. And you became imitators of us, even of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you has sounded forth the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith to Godward is gone forth so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned unto God from idols to serve a living and true God, 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 let us again seek God's face for the help of the Spirit of God in the preaching and in the hearing of God's Word. Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank you that we have an open Bible before us. But we acknowledge that unless you by the Spirit open the eyes of our hearts It may just as well be a closed Bible. And so we pray that you would send your Holy Spirit upon preacher and hearer alike. that that word may come to every one of us, not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much conviction. Hear our cry as we cast ourselves upon your grace. In Jesus' name, amen. Now I begin this morning by asking each one of you a very simple, but a profoundly important question. Simple, yet profoundly important question. And the question is this. Has the gospel come to you in word only? Or has it come to you in power, in the Holy Spirit, and in much conviction or assurance? Has the gospel come to you in word only, or has it come to you in power? Now that the gospel has come to you in word, I have no doubt. The vast majority of you sitting in this place have sat here for some time, and even if you've only sat here for a few weeks, the gospel has come to you. That is the good news concerning God's way of salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ the Lord. You have heard the message of God's kindness to sinners in sending His only begotten Son to die in the room instead of sinners, that all who cast themselves upon this Savior will receive full pardon for all of their sins, acceptance as sons and daughters. They will be given the gift of the Holy Spirit and the pledge and promise of eternal life. That message contained in those propositional truths about Jesus Christ and his work for sinners, that gospel has come to you, some of you, times without number. But now my question is, not has the gospel come to you, but has the gospel come to you in power and in the Holy Spirit? And my question is obviously derived from the words of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians. For in verse 4 of our chapter he says, knowing brethren beloved of God your election because our gospel came to you not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much conviction or much assurance. Now this should immediately raise a question with us. In verses 2 and 3, Paul records how he and his companions, Silas and Timothy, every time they have a prayer meeting, they find themselves giving thanks to God for the Thessalonians. And as they give thanks to God, notice now what he says, they do so both remembering something and knowing something, verse 3, remembering without ceasing. When we get on our knees and we begin to pray for the Thessalonians, we do so with our minds reflecting on something we know. And what we know is that you are continually manifesting a work of faith, a labor of love, and patience of hope. He says, we remember these realities, but we not only do so remembering, but verse 4 says, we pray knowing something. And he says, what we know is your election. He is absolutely confident that there in Thessalonica are a group of people who were sovereignly, freely, lovingly chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be the recipients of life and salvation in Jesus Christ. We pray remembering and we pray knowing. Now that raises a question. How did Paul and Silas and Timothy come to know who was elect among the people of God at Thessalonica? Did God take them up into heaven and say, let me show you the Lamb's book of life where the names of all of my elect are written from before the foundation of the world and allow Paul and Silas and Timothy to look into the role of God's elect and then from memory say, well, I remember the names of this and this and this one in the church at Thessalonica. Let me see if their name, ah, there they are. There they are, there they are, there they are. Is that how they came to the knowledge of the election of the Thessalonians? Of course not. Of course God didn't take them up to heaven and give them a peek into the Lamb's Book of Life. Well, did God perhaps give direct revelation to Paul as an apostle? For he was the recipient of much direct revelation. He says in Galatians 1, 10 to 12, that he came to know the gospel, not from the lips of any man, but by direct revelation of Jesus Christ. Further, he says in 2 Corinthians 12, he was caught up into the third heaven and heard things it's unlawful to utter. How did he come to know they were elect? Did God give him direct revelation? There's absolutely no indication of it. Look at the text. He tells us how he, Silas, and Timothy came to the conviction that there were in Thessalonica a number of gods elect. Notice what the text says. Knowing brethren beloved of God your election and some of you may have a translation that the marginal reading is not how that but because And that's a proper translation of that particle. We know your election because our gospel came to you, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much conviction. Paul says, we know you are elect because the gospel did not come to you simply as a set of propositions with wonderful promises and urgings to run to Christ, but it came to you in power. And the gospel coming to you in power was the revelation that you were indeed the elect of God. Now that raises another question. How did Paul know that the gospel had come in power? Did God give him a power meter, and he could go around to the Thessalonians and say, come here, come here, I want to see whether the gospels come to you in power, and place some electrodes on their temple, and then watch a meter, and if the meter went off, Gospel came to you in power. Next one, let's put the electrodes on the thing. Here's the power meter. We turn it on. Uh-oh, uh-oh, the needle's up. No, gospel didn't come to you in power. Some of you kids are smiling. You say that's ridiculous. Yeah, it is ridiculous. But my head thinks up ridiculous things at times, and it finds a way into my preaching. But you see the point, they did not know their election because they were taken up into heaven and could read the Lamb's Book of Life. They did not know their election because of some direct revelatory word from God. They did not know their election because they had some kind of a power meter They knew their election because the gospel came to them in power. And they knew the gospel came to them in power because of what the gospel did to them. I want you to look at a word that is used two times in the context. Look at verse 6. And you became, verse 7, so that you became. Something happened to them and in them that persuaded Paul and Silas and Timothy that it was only the gospel that could effect the changes that caused them to become, to become. They knew the gospel came in power because of what the gospel effected in them. And what my purpose is this morning is to unpack this chapter as the answer to the question, has the gospel come to you? not in word only, but in power, in the Holy Spirit, and in much conviction, for wherever and whenever the gospel comes in power, it effects in everyone to whom it comes the same basic things that it effected in the Thessalonians. And so it is this chapter that becomes a mirror that we can hold up and say, do I see me in that mirror if the gospel has come to me in power and not in word only? it will have effected in me precisely what it effected in the life of the Thessalonians. And as time permits, I want to trace out four categories of the things that the gospel does when it comes to us in saving power and I'm going to spend the majority of my time on the first of those things because it is fundamental and foundational to all of the others and it comes as the foundation it doesn't come to us in the opening verses It comes to us in verses 9 and 10, and verses 9 and 10 set before us the foundational thing that the gospel does when it comes to men and women, boys and girls in power, and all the other things that I hope to unpack from the chapter are built upon it. What then is the first thing that the gospel does when it comes to men and women in power? The first thing it does is it produces a radical conversion. Listen to the words of 9 and 10. For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how that you turned unto God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. That's a description of a radical conversion. Now the word radical I use in its formal sense. That which is radical goes to the root. It has to do with the foundation. I did not say When the gospel comes in power, it will necessarily produce a dramatic conversion, a sensational conversion, no. But it will produce a radical conversion, that is, a conversion that goes to the very roots of who we are, what we are, how we think, and what we do. And the elements of that radical conversion, according to the apostle, are three. Three elements involved in this radical conversion always produced when the gospel comes, not in word only, but in power, in the Holy Spirit, and in much conviction. The first is this. It produces a decisive turning. Look at the language of the text. These other people report about our entering in unto you, how that you turned unto God from idols to serve a living and a true God. There is in every true biblical conversion a decisive turning. The tense of the verb that Paul uses points to a decisive crisis of turning. And here Paul uses a word that is one of Luke's favorite words eight times in the book of Acts. Luke uses it to describe that turning that is part and parcel of a genuine work of grace. And Paul became familiar with it. from his very commissioning and conversion on the Damascus Road. Look at just one incident of its use in the book of Acts, which cast, as it were, its shadow and spreads its flavor to all the other uses. Acts 26 and verse 18. Here in one of Paul's three recorded testimonies in the book of Acts, he's telling what happened when the Lord arrested him with the voice out of heaven. And the Lord says to him, pick up the reading at verse 16, arise, stand on your feet, To this end I've appeared unto you to appoint you a minister and a witness, both of the things wherein you have seen me and the things wherein I will appear unto you, delivering you from the people and the Gentiles unto whom I send you." Now notice, he is commissioned and sent to do what? to open their eyes that they may, here's our word, that they may turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me." There is no remission of sins, there's no reception of the inheritance of grace, unless there is this radical turning that they may turn that they may receive. No turning, no reception and that turning is decisive and it's very specific look at the positive and the negative aspects of it back in first Thessalonians what is the positive the text says that you turned unto God, the negative, from your idols. Now let's just park there for a little bit. You turned unto God. Pros ton theon. You turned unto God. Well, what's the inescapable conclusion? that when the gospel came to them, their backs and their faces were turned against God. If their conversion is a turning to God, the gospel found them with a back and a face away from God. A beautiful description of the tragic condition of all men in sin. Whether they're sophisticated sinners or rotten, stinking, down and out sinners, the mark of every sinner is he is a face in the back turned creature with reference to God. His face and his back are against and away from God. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one of us to his own way. And our own way is always the face and back against God way. That's why the Apostle could say, in summing up the state of all men by nature, there is no fear of God before their eyes. That regard in which we look upon the face of God as the most desirable and most beautiful and most attractive thing in the universe and pleasing Him is our greatest passion. Displeasing him is our greatest dread. That's the fear of God. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Why? We have the face and the back turned against God. That's how the gospel finds us. With all the different avenues that that disposition cuts from the sophisticated and from the educated and from the highly cultured to the base. the disgusting profligate. This is the common denominator of every single one of you by nature. And of this preacher by nature, we're born with the face and the back to God. We live with the turned face and the turned back. That's what we eat and drink and breathe. That's what we are. Face and back turned against God. Christ comes from heaven for such sinners, takes to Himself true human soul and a true human body, that in that marvelous union of soul and body, two natures in the one person, He might live the life we should have lived and would have lived if we had the face and the back towards God. instead of against God. He dies. He's buried. He's raised from the dead. What was the purpose of all of that? Well, you say, so we wouldn't go to hell. No, no, much more than that. Listen to Peter's words. Christ suffered for us The just for the unjust. 1 Peter 3.18. You want to see it in your Bibles, turn to it. 1 Peter 3.18. He suffered for us, the just for the unjust. Why? That He might bring us to God. He didn't suffer to fireproof a bunch of people who still live with the face and the back against God. That's an insult to Christ. It's an insult to God. He died to get us turned around so that face and heart and whole of our being is God-ward. Christ died to have a God-obsessed He died to bring us to God. Now what happens when the gospel comes to us? And what is the essence of the gospel call? Let the prophet Isaiah answer us. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. For he will abundantly pardon, and to our God let him return, let him return unto the Lord our God. For he will abundantly pardon. the decisive turning in its positive dimension is a turning unto God through Jesus Christ that from henceforth I shall seek in the power of His grace to live a life that is reflective of the face and the heart and the whole being that is Godward. You turned unto God. Same little phrase, pros ten thon theon, that's found in John 1, 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word was with God, pros ton, theon, from eternity, though the eternal Word lived in the face-to-face communion with the Father. And when He leaves that to take true humanity and come to this sin-cursed world to bear the rejection and the spittle and the shame of the cross, He did it to bring us to where He was. and into the orbit of a God-centered, God-obsessed life. That's why he died. It's to that to which he calls us in the gospel call. That's the positive. But now look at the negative. You turned unto God apo from It's very interesting when you read the brief record of Luke in Acts 17 about Paul's gospel endeavors there at Thessalonica. It only records a very small snippet of those efforts connected with the synagogue. where he went in the synagogue and reasoned out of the scriptures seeking to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ of God. He had to suffer and die and be raised from the dead so that the element of gospel preaching at Thessalonica recorded in act. There were no idols, no literal idols. They were Jews. They were not idol worshipers. outwardly. But it wasn't long, apparently, from what verse 8 tells us, that the word of the Lord has sounded out from you, not only in Achaia, but in every place, that being at that center of commerce and one of the main Roman roads going through Thessalonica, that the gospel went out into the pagan community where there was an obsession with idols, and where idol worship was part and parcel of the very fabric of society. But it's interesting, knowing he's writing to a church comprised of both Jews and of Gentiles, he doesn't say, you turned unto God and some of you from idols. He said, no, all of you. just as surely as every one of you who's experienced a radical conversion has experienced a decisive turning unto God, you've all experienced a decisive turning from idols. And I believe the Apostle is going to the heart of the issue that every sinner has within his own breast an idol factory and the idol most frequently Manufactured is the one you see when you look in the mirror. 24-7, that factory is busy producing idols. And the idol it produces most of the time is you. That's what Paul meant when he said in 2nd Corinthians 5 15 and that he Christ died for all that they who live should no longer henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. God says, you shall have no other gods before me. The human heart by nature says, I will have no other god but me. No other gods before me? Your heart and my heart says, no god but me. My will, my desires, my standards, my ideas, my thoughts. I think this about that. I want this about that. That's the idolatry of the human heart. And here the apostle says, when the word came, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much conviction, it effected in those elect Thessalonians this decisive turning in which they turned to God from their idols. And look at the God to whom they turn. How is he described? He says, you turn to serve a living and a true God. The one true and living God is the one to whom you turned. You turned from all of the dead idols of pleasure and things and stuff and career and sex and fun and all the other things that become obsessive to this idolatrous heart you turn from your idols. But then it not only involved this decisive turning with the positive and negative, but look at the texts. There was a decisive submitting. They report concerning what manner of entering in we had unto you, how you turned unto God from idols to serve a living and a true God. And that verb, to serve, Paul had several he could have used. He deliberately chose the one that the proper way to translate it is this, to serve as a willing bond slave. the living and the true God. He could have chosen words that meant to serve as a house servant, a hired servant. No, the doulos and the douluo, the verb form, means to serve as one who is the possession of another. A doulos was a slave who was owned by his master. He had no will of his own. He had no plans of his own. He had no possessions of his own. Everything he was and did was identified with the will of his master. And Paul says, when the gospel came to you Thessalonians, not in word only, But it came in power. It came in the Holy Spirit. And in much conviction, it not only affected a decisive turning, but a decisive submitting. So that when your face and your back that were against Him are turned toward Him, the disposition was one of unqualified submission to that God. you turn to the living in the true God with the disposition of willingness to serve him as a bond slave. And that's part of the identity of a true Christian. When Peter writes in 1 Peter 2 and verse 16 to these believers scattered throughout the Asia Minor in the first century, notice how he describes them in 1 Peter 2.16 as free and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bond slaves of God. He assumes that that's their identity. Now he says, live consistently with that identity. And if you want to know what that means, where the rubber meets the road, you turn to Romans 6 verses 15 to 23. where Paul takes the extended analogy of servitude to God and Christ as the fruit of the gospel. And he says, look, this is not just a nice devotional concept. It's something that touches you where you live, where you act, what you do with your hands, your feet, your eyes, your ears, your sexual organs. He said, just as you presented the members of your body, instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, so now present yourselves unto God as slaves of righteousness, and all of your members as instruments to be employed in the service of your God, so that what you touch, God as your Lord and Master in Jesus Christ says, my slave, you may touch that with my smile. Everything we take, everything we desire, all that we do, the smile of our Master is our greatest concern. Calvin said very perceptively, only the person who has learned to put himself wholly in subjection to God is truly converted to God. Now, dear folks, that's not airy-fairy stuff. That means when you sit with your remote control, what you push and what you push off either reflects your God's slave, or you're a slave of your lust, a slave of your own passions, a slave of the world's standards, what's acceptable, what's unacceptable. Does your servitude to God touch your remote control? Does it touch your mouse at your computer? Does it touch you where you really live? That's the issue. That's why Paul was convinced these had experienced not just the gospel floating through their ears and coming out their lips in a profession of faith. The gospel had come in power. Power that wrenched them loose from the servitude of sin to the servitude of God. in Jesus Christ, and a glad servitude, the kind that's expressed in the hymn we sang, Jesus, master whose I am, purchased thine alone to be by thy blood, O spotless Lamb, shed so willingly for me, let my heart be all thine." That's not a grudging, well, I guess if I'm going to miss hell, I've got to become a slave. I don't like it, but I guess it's worth the deal. No, no, no. You see a beauty in God, revealed in Christ, that captures your heart and it makes you say and sing, hear, Lord. I give myself away. Tis all that I can do. Tis all I want to do. Is that you? Look in the mirror. Is that you? Could Paul say it? People will know you if they were to report about you like they were reporting about the Thessalonians. They say, oh, you don't know John like I do, Paul, but I know him. And it's evident he has turned to God from his idols with the disposition of loving servitude to God as a bond slave. You get around that guy for more than 10 minutes and you realize everything he says, everything he listens to, all that he talks about reflects he is a bond slave of his God. Is that you? If that's not you, you're not saved, you're lost. The gospel has not come to you in power. It does this every time it comes in power. One of the things that vexes my soul is to see so many being brought up through our churches who know the word of the gospel perfectly. but who evidence little of its power, making them the willing bond slaves of the living God, willing to consider whether or not God would have them do something other with their lives than live the life of an ordinary middle-class, semi-affluent American. Where are those who have a passion to serve Christ at home and abroad, who have to be held back from the fulfillment of that passion till they show the maturity that would warrant the church laying hands on them and sending them to the far corners of the world. When the gospel comes in power, it effects a radical conversion that involves a decisive turning, it's there in our text, a decisive submitting, but it involves a third thing. Look at the text. how that you turned unto God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. And I call this a decisive reorienting. A decisive reorienting. What do these words mean? In your conversion, he says, you turn to God from your idols with a disposition of submission to Him and, and, this is all part of their conversion, to wait for His Son from heaven. What's that all about? This is what it's all about. There's a total reorientation from attachment to this world to an attachment to the world to come, particularly in terms of the place that Jesus has in that world. When you are attached in love to someone, and you are separated from them, you long to see them. Need I give you an illustration? I ain't got over it yet. She's still the twig full of my eye. and the delight of my heart. My last words to her earlier this morning were, Dorothy, I miss you. I'm starting to count the hours. Why? There's an attachment of heart affection to a person. Notice it doesn't say, and to wait for the second coming. That's an event. It says to wait for his son. That's a person. In their conversion, Jesus was not just the divinely provided means by which God could righteously punish sin and then accept sinners as though he was a commodity, and his second coming is another event in the unfolding of gospel commodities. No, their hearts were attached to Jesus. And because he wasn't here and they'd never seen him in the flesh, There's this total reorientation. Whatever this world holds for me, at the most wonderful moments when Providence seems to be smiling from ear to ear, you say, this ain't it. There's something better waiting. Something better waiting me? The Lord Jesus will come, and I shall see Him face to face, and I'll be like Him, and never once again will I ever have to go to Him and through Him to my Father for the forgiveness of sins. When I see Thee as Thou art, love Thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. Now this wasn't said of just a few saints at Thessalonica who were super-duper saints. He says it of all the saints. Now, they weren't sinless. You read this epistle to the end, read the second epistle, they had problems at the end of this epistle he says you've got some weak people support them you got some unruly people admonish them in the second and then he says you got your head mixed up about certain aspects of the second coming and tries to sort them out in the second letter they had some other issues relative to the second coming they had some people that were lazy and were hiding their laziness under a pseudo-spiritual canopy they weren't perfect, but he could say of every one of them to whom the gospel came in power that there was this decisive reorientation from attachment to this world to the world to come, especially in terms of attachment to Jesus. and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come." John Stott wrote, without this turning and serving and waiting, we can scarcely have a biblical claim to have been converted. This is not some novel Al Martin interpretation of the passage. The language forces this upon us and forces itself upon every responsible commentator. And so Mr. Stott says, without this turning, serving, and waiting, we can scarcely claim on biblical grounds to claim to have been converted. I said I would spend the majority of my time on that first head. And I'm asking you, has the gospel come to you in word only or in power? Is what I've been describing a mirror image of what the gospel's done for you? If not, if not, you need seriously to question, has it come to me in power? Oh yes, it's come to me in word. I've so absorbed the word, I could tell a hundred people how to get saved. I know the word of the gospel, but have I experienced its power? Its power turning me from the face away in the back turned to God. From my idols, especially the idolatrous attachment to self, has it worked in me by the grace of God that I gladly acknowledge myself to be a bond slave of the living God in Jesus Christ. And can I honestly say, I own my identity as a stranger and a pilgrim. My homeland is somewhere else, and I long to see the one who is central to that homeland. But then, much more briefly and quickly, I apprised you at the beginning The second thing the gospel does when it comes in power, it not only affects a radical conversion, secondly, it implants the fundamental Christian graces. It implants the fundamental Christian graces. Back to the beginning of the chapter, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work, that is brought out of your faith and your labor that is wrought out of your love and your patience or endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. He identifies as a possession of all of the elect saints of God at Thessalonica, these three graces that had been worked in them. That's why he says, I give thanks to God. They were not things they created. He knew when the gospel came in power, the gospel brought in its train these graces and deposited them in their hearts. A work rooted in their faith, a labor rooted in their love, endurance rooted in their hope and verse 6 be a joy in the midst of opposition he says you receive the word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Spirit the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. These graces were implanted in them, and those graces were active, and Paul wants them to grow in verse 8 of chapter 5, the same epistle. But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. But he assumes they've got these things. He doesn't say, some love, some faith growing out of love, growing out of, let me go back up, don't get some faith, yes, that will manifest itself in work, some love that will, he said no, you've got them, now let's use them, because the Holy Spirit deposited them in you. The gospel came, faith, Godward trust, love, manward service, hope, a forward-looking confidence. And you notice the common denominator of all three of those graces? They take us out of self-absorption. Faith, that's Godward trust. Love, leading to manward service. Hope, forward-looking confidence for what yet shall be mine. I've got my nose out of my navel. I'm no longer self-absorbed. I'm not only God-absorbed, but these graces implanted in me are active, operative graces, so that I'm prepared to say to you this morning, if the Gospels come to you in power, these graces are the footprints of God upon your grace-invaded soul. Has God invaded you in grace? Here are God's footprints, faith, hope, love, joy. God puts them there. We must cultivate them. We must nourish them. We must seek to constantly nurture them and see them work out, but it's God who implants them. Thirdly, when the gospel comes in power, it effects radical conversion, implants fundamental graces. Thirdly, it begins to create a Christ-shaped life. Look at verses 6 and 7. Verses 6 and 7 of 1 Thessalonians 1, you became imitators of us, and that word chi can be legitimately translated, even. You became imitators of us, even of the Lord. having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all that believe. When the gospel comes in power, its ultimate purpose is what? Romans 8. Whom he did foreknow, then he did predestined to be what? Conformed to the image of his son. And when God has done his work of restorative grace, 1 John chapter 3. Beloved, doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall be manifested, we shall be like him. When God's done his restorative work, all the moral character of Christ will be perfectly mirrored in you and me spiritually, inwardly, in the soul, but in our bodies. Philippians 3.21, He shall fashion the body of this humiliation like unto the body of His glory. Likeness to Christ is God's great end in redemptive and restorative grace, so that He will be the firstborn among many brethren, and we will all bear the family likeness When does he start that? When we are truly converted. When the gospel comes, not in word only, but in power, it begins to effect a Christ-shaped life. And we see those who are like Christ and we imitate them, but beyond them we're imitating Christ. For he that says he abides in Him ought to walk Even as he walked, he left us an example that we should follow his steps. And when the gospel comes in power, we begin to take on the character traits of the Savior. Regardless of our past, regardless of our dysfunctional family, regardless of our rotten upbringing, regardless of this, that, or the other, the Holy Spirit begins to make truly converted people like Jesus. He begins to work in them the meekness and the gentleness of Christ, the selfless, outgoing love of Christ, the patience of Christ, the concern of Christ for the marginalized. Things happen in us that at times make us want to look in the mirror and say, who is that? That is not the person I looked at. for X number of years, things are operating in me, and desires are being born in me, and actions coming out of me, that I'm an amazement to myself. Do you know anything of that, or am I talking to myself? This is what the gospel does. You became followers of us, even ultimately of the Lord Himself. And then finally, fourthly, when the gospel comes in power, It issues in a gospel-proclaiming and a gospel-affirming community. That salvation comes to individuals, but it never stops with individuals. What did it do at Thessalonica? Look at verse 8, verse 7 and 8. They became examples to others, for from you has sounded forth the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith to God would have gone forth, so that we need not speak anything." Paul said, we go into a given area and we say, hey, have you heard the news of what God was doing back there in Thessalonica? And people say, oh yeah, Paul, you don't need to tell us a thing. We've heard. He said, we don't need to speak. They tell us. They've heard the report. What had happened? God took those individually elect, converted sinners who experienced the gospel not in word only, but in power in the Holy Spirit, much conviction, and He gathered them into a gospel-proclaiming, gospel-affirming community. From you the word sounded forth. That word is found nowhere else in the New Testament. But in secular Greek, that word was used when you wanted to speak. Let me quote now, they were those who rang out, that's the Greek word, they rang out the word. It's used in secular Greek of the loud cry of a multitude. It's used of a trumpet calling people into assembly. It always indicates that it wasn't a whisper. It was something stentorian and clear and loud. And Paul says, you became a community of those who sounded out the gospel and who affirmed the power of the gospel in your lifestyle. Think of where they were. Thessalonica was a seaport. They were there by the Via Ignatia, one of the main Roman roads. And when people would come through, they'd hear about this group of people to whom the gospel had come in power. And if they got anywhere near those people, they heard them sounding forth the message of God's grace in salvation. And that's what the gospel does when it comes in power. So I lay before you these four categories that I believe are there evident in the text of 1 Thessalonians 1. Knowing brethren, beloved of God, your election because Our gospel came not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance. How did he know it? Because it effected a radical conversion. It implanted fundamental Christian graces. It began to create in them Christ-shaped lives. And it issued in a gospel-proclaiming and gospel-affirming community. Dear people, these are the things that have marked your life for 47 years. Whatever else you become, whatever else you seek to do, let go of this! And this place is Ichabod. you'll be another nice religious club. I call upon you, my fellow elders, dealing with the second generation, to be ever so careful and not accept a mere lip parroting of the word of the gospel. You have every right and responsibility to look for the evidence that the gospel has come in its power. And you young people, Don't be satisfied with a reasonably decent life propped up by the do's and don'ts of your parents and the comfort of being in association with others that you know are not going to try to take advantage of you. There's a wonderful security being in the company of those influenced by the moral standards of the gospel. Don't be content with mere comfort with what the gospel has done for a group of parents. Ask yourself, is Christ the pearl of great price to me? Have I in my heart sold everything to have Him? I'm prepared to go anywhere, to be anything, to please my Savior. bear anything to please Him. These are the critical issues, and may God grant that the gospel will continue in this place to come, not in word only, but in power, in the Holy Spirit. and in much assurance. And I trust, as a result of our study this morning, that there are not a few of you who have a deeper assurance than you've ever had, by the grace of God, I'm the real thing. You've been able to look in the mirror of that passage and say, oh Lord, I need to grow in that. I need to do some work there. I need to increase there. But Lord, those things are true of me. They're true of me. Lord, the gospels come to me in power. I am not what I once was. Preaching it, my assurance is heightened. A man standing in front of you needs grace to grow in all of these areas, but to be able to say, Lord, that's what you did for me. When you reached down and took that 17 year old pimple faced, dirty mouth football player, and you turned him from his idols. to the living God, implanted those graces within, began to make him like Christ, and put him into the company of a gospel-shaped, gospel-proclaiming people. Oh, dear people, don't be satisfied with anything less. Let's pray together. Father, how we thank you for your word, that word which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. May it fasten itself upon all of our hearts with power, even this day. Bless your truth, whatever's had the mixture of the clay and the chaff of men's thoughts, bring it to naught. But whatever's been true to the scriptures, oh God, watch over it, and cause it to bear its intended fruit, we plead in Jesus' name.