Sermon Cloud

Well, last time we saw that persecution is a part of the Christian faith.

• The fact that the Thessalonians were willing and able to endure that persecution was yet another evidence of the reality of their faith.

• As we look to them as an example church we must ask ourselves whether we are willing to follow their example here.

• This morning we are going to look at the other side of that coin.

1 Thessalonians 2:14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men, 16 forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved,

• The thing and the degree to which the Thessalonians suffered is hinted at here.

• Remember that last time we looked at the particulars of the mob and the courtroom and the fines for Jason and those in his house.

• It was actually the Jews of Thessalonica that started to persecute them, men of their own country, but adherents to Judaism.

• They aroused the mob in the marketplace and scared the political leaders with the idea of treason.

• Acts 17:5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.

• Paul says that he has seen this before, right?

• The Jews have always resisted God and His Word!

• Why them?

• Paul is not here condemning all Jews outright.

• They seem to be the model of rebellion.

• Did you ever look at your Bible and wonder how the Jews could be so dumb?

• Romans 9:1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. 6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED." 8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

• Paul has a heart for his people, a kind of national devotion as we do as Americans

• Possibly as an ethnic descendant of whatever nationality we are from.

• But he says that just because someone is a Jew by birth does not make him God's Israel.

• Only those who receive Him by faith can have that distinction.

• Romans 10:1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

• Most of the Jews have gone at it the wrong way.

• They are zealous for God, but not according to His way.

• They want God to accept them based on their natural birth and their performance.

• Romans 11:1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, 3 "LORD, THEY HAVE KILLED YOUR PROPHETS AND TORN DOWN YOUR ALTARS, AND I ALONE AM LEFT, AND THEY SEEK MY LIFE"? 4 But what does the divine response say to him? "I HAVE RESERVED FOR MYSELF SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL." 5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

• So as we see in the flow of Romans, even within the nation of Israel we have those who believe and are saved and those who try to do it on their own using the Bible as a rule book for winning God's favor.

• That is not what God's Word is for...

• Remember that the imperative must always follow the indicative!

• When their view of God is challenged they fight against it!

• Israel was guilty of resisting the Word of God at that time not because they are more wicked that others,

• But because up until then they were the only ones who had God's Word!

• Now we see that the Thessalonians are also resisting it now that it has come to them.

• So Paul is not dividing the world by race when he condemns the Jews for their unbelief.!

• Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

• We will come back to this passage tonight as we dig deeper because of the importance of understanding what Paul says here.

• Romans 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.

• The Law only condemns.

• It drives us to seek mercy in Christ!

• Words From Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder

• Paul is dividing by DOCTRINE!

• See, it is either works righteousness or it is by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ!

• The Jews in his day wanted to be justified by keeping the Law of Moses!

• In his day they were opposed to the Gospel because they were prejudiced and self-righteous!

• There are plenty of others today who follow their model.

• Matthew 23:27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' 31 "Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.

• Matthew 23:33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

• Unregenerate men hate the Truth of God's Word and live to suppress the knowledge that God has given them.

• The Jews did it in the time of Christ and before because they were the ones with God's clearest revelation to suppress.

• The question of Free Will came up the other day,

• What is FREE WILL?

• How should we as Christians understand it?

• This is important to understanding this.

• Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

• By nature, men (EVERY MAN) is a truth suppressor.

• We are spiritually dead (Eph 2:1-3)

• We cannot comprehend spiritual things; 1 Corinthians 2:13 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

• Romans 9:15 For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOMEVER I WILL HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOMEVER I WILL HAVE COMPASSION." 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

• John 1:11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

• How is this so?

• Do not you and I make real choices every day?

• Of course we do.

• We are not robots nor am I or the Word of God implying that this is so.

We need to understand man's disposition in order to understand our and others reactions to God and His Word.

• Jonathan Edwards says - The will is free to chose according to its strongest inclination, but not against it. The will cannot choose what it does not desire to choose. In a sense the will is free, but in another sense it is not.

• What is he saying?

• Is this doublespeak?

• The common objection is that in order for a man to bear guilt for disobeying God's commands he must have the ability to either obey or not.

• If merely that Inability will excuse disobedience, which is implied in the opposition or defect of inclination, remaining after the Command is exhibited, then wickedness always carries that in it which excuses it. By how much the more wickedness there is in a man’s heart, by so much is his inclination to evil the stronger, and by so much the more, therefore, has he of moral Inability to the good required. His moral Inability consisting in the strength of his evil inclination, is the very thing wherein his wickedness consists; and yet, according to Arminian principles, it must be a thing inconsistent with wickedness; and by how much the more he has of it, by so much is he the further from wickedness.

• Therefore, on the whole, it is manifest, that moral Inability alone (which consists in disinclination) never renders any thing improperly the subject matter of Precept or Command, and never can excuse any person in disobedience, or want of conformity to a command. Natural Inability, arising from the want of natural capacity, or external hindrance, (which alone is properly called Inability,) without doubt wholly excuses, or makes a thing improperly the matter of Command. If men are excused from doing or acting any good thing, supposed to be commanded, it must be through some defect or obstacle that is not in the Will itself, but either in the capacity of understanding, or body, or outward circumstances

• But what did Jesus say to the Scribes and Pharisees?

• Matthew 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

• Fallen men are by nature Truth Suppressors as we saw in Romans 1:18.

• It is not that they are physically incapable.

• They are morally incapable because they are by nature averse to the truth.

• Men make real decisions every day.

• Being rational and willing are part of the nature that God gave man when He made him in His own image.

• Sinful man cannot find God for the same reason a thief cannot find a policeman.

Because of original sin, man’s inclinations are bent towards sin, and man cannot of his own free choice, choose what is contrary to his desires.

• Sinful man desires sin. Romans 8 tells us that "those who live according to the (flesh) sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires" and that "the sinful mind is death…the sinful mind is hostile (enmity) to God. It does not submit to God’s law nor can it do so." This passage describes the inability of the fallen human will to choose good, and it does speak of the ability to choose; its choices are always evil.

• The will of man is free to choose according to its own inclinations and when those inclinations are sinful and depraved, the will cannot choose contrary to itself and therefore choose good, but only more wickedness. So the will is not free in the absolute sense to choose equally good or evil, but only according to its ability.

• I wish I could find it or remember the passage that he was teaching when I head him say this, but J.Vernon McGee said that an unregenerate man cannot choose God for the same reason that a turtle can't choose to fly, its not in his nature.

I know what you are thinking and what you would like to say, We might just as well give up.

What are we to do in such a state?

• It should make you all the more earnestly seek the Lord while He may be found

• To make your calling and election sure!

What are are applications here?

• We live in a world of unregenerate men who want to suppress the truth.

• We need to preach God's Word to them like it is God's responsibility to convert them and not ours.

• If we try to use any other technique to win people to Christ and help them live for Him we are displeasing God and working against the very men we want to help!

• How is that?

• God has given us His Word and it is effective, remember two weeks ago.

• If we choose not to use the thing that God has given us and substitute for it instead a tool of our own devising....

• We displease God in our disobedience

• We are contrary to man because we deprive him of the one effective means of bringing his will into submission to God.

• “We don't want to teach kids the Bible, we want to help them with their problems!” A man form a national youth ministry in Texas!

This does not make us hate unsaved men!

• It makes us willing to sacrifice for them as Christ sacrificed for us when we were thus!

• Calvin's graduates – 6 mos. life expectancy.

We need to understand this in order to function properly as Christians.

• God's view of man's nature must be our view of man's nature