In Jason Dohm's sermon titled 'The Miracle of the New Birth,' he explores the theological implications of 1 Thessalonians 1:5, emphasizing the miracle of being born again through God's intervention. Dohm discusses two major truths from previous verses: that God deserves the credit for salvation, and that salvation inevitably produces visible change in believers. The sermon highlights the doctrine of election, noting that while election is God's choice made before creation, it unfolds practically in life through the miracle of new birth. Dohm outlines how the gospel came to Thessalonica not just in words but also in power, the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, pointing to the transformative power of God. He distinguishes between mere words and the effectual gospel that brings about true change. The sermon also touches on the role of the Holy Spirit in convicting of sin and righteousness and emphasizes the harmony between the character of gospel preachers and their message. Dohm concludes with applications for believers, urging them to give attention to the gospel words, rely on God rather than words, and consider their lives as part of the message they preach.

Our sermon text for today is 1st Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 5 and I'll be beginning in verse 1 for context. Paul, Sylvana, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you all making mention of you in our prayers remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, knowing beloved brethren, your election by God. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake." The title of the sermon this morning is the miracle of the new birth.

That's what we have in front of us in our text this week. Is a miracle of God when someone is born again. Last week we were considering verses 2-4. And the title of the sermon last week was Thanksgiving to God for election by God. And I think there were two great truths in verses 2 through 4.

The first great truth was that God gets the credit. This is the work of God. So Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are reflecting back on their time among the Thessalonians, what they saw first hand, and then the report that they got back from Timothy and they see a lot of goodness and they know who to thank for the goodness. It's not the result of human effort. It is the result of a God who is full of mercy and compassion and he reaches into a pagan culture, and he saves those pagans, and there's good fruit that comes from it.

So the first great truth from last week's text was God gets the credit, God deserves the credit, It is a work of God. The second great truth was that salvation produces things in the lives of those who are saved. It can't be any other way, friends. Salvation produces fruit. Salvation is a root that grows up and produces fruit.

So that genuine faith works out into work. It produces work. Something intangible, the faith which you can't see or put on a scale and weigh, produces work that you can see and you can measure. That genuine love, something intangible that you can't see or weigh on a scale, produces labor, a self-sacrificing, lay down your life labor that you don't see in those who aren't born again. And that genuine hope produces a patience, a perseverance, a willingness to endure anything rather than to let go of the Gospel.

That's what's seen in the lives of the Thessalonians. They're enduring the same persecutions that the Judean churches are enduring, which included martyrdom by the way, But all that pressure will not make them turn loose of the Gospel. Why? Because there is a hope in them. There is a confident expectation that God will be faithful, God will sustain them, and God will bring them to heaven in the end so that whatever life brings in the meantime they can hold on to the gospel.

Salvation is a root that produces fruit. This week we are now in verse 5 and we see in verse 5 how this great theological truth of election works out practically. In other words, election is something that happened long before we ever were. Election was a choice by God made before we ever breathed the breath, before the world was ever made. It was before the foundation of the world God made those choices.

He knew all the names and He made the choices. That's the doctrine of election. And it happened before we ever breathed a breath, before the world was made. But it works out practically in your life so that election does not equal salvation. Let me be careful to Clarify that.

They're not exactly the same thing. They're unbreakably related for sure. But you've always been elect. If you're elect. But you haven't always been saved.

No one is born saved. Isn't that what the Bible teaches? We are born in a desperate condition. The condition of the natural man is a desperate estate indeed. So God has to work in your life to bring you from that desperate condition of deserving, earning condemnation every day to being born again.

That's a miracle. So the elect have been elect before the world was made, but they're not saved from when the world was made. God works in time, in life, in the circumstances, in your thoughts to bring you to salvation if you are elect. As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. God, I thank you that You do raise the spiritually dead.

Your word says and so truthfully that the natural man, the natural woman is dead in sins and transgressions. So it requires a miracle for life. That death would be raised from the dead. That those who are in such a desperate spiritual condition, standing condemned with no way to be cleansed of ourselves, that you reach into these lives of ours. And you orchestrate so many circumstances, so many thoughts, bring so many people in order to bring your elect into your kingdom and then bring them safely home.

Thank you, God. These Verses should be such an opportunity for thanksgiving. Make us thankful. Make us rejoice when we read these words, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. So I have a two-point sermon. It's only one verse, So I squeezed two points out of one verse. The first point is the coming of an effectual gospel. So if you're taking notes on the handout, there are two blanks.

The blanks are effectual gospel. The coming of an effectual gospel. Effectual means successful in producing the intended result. There is an objective, and effectual means the objective is attained, it's achieved. So this is a gospel that hits the target.

That's what Paul is saying happened in Thessalonica. The Gospel went forward to hit a target and that was the salvation of pagan sinners. And Paul looks back and says, the Gospel hit the target. This was the coming of an effectual gospel. It was successful in producing the intended result.

That's why they went there to preach, so that sinners would be saved, and sinners were saved. The gospel hit the target. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy begin by speaking of our gospel. That's an interesting phrase. In 1 Thessalonians you also see the terms the Gospel of God and the Gospel of Christ, but here these authors call it our Gospel, for our Gospel did not come to you in word only.

Listen to what Paul says about the Gospel in Galatians 1.8. This is Galatians 1.8. Paul says, But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you, then what we have preached to you, Let him be accursed. Wow, that is stunning language. Paul says, if we come back and preach another gospel to you, or if an angel comes down from heaven and preaches another gospel from you.

Let us be accursed or let that angel be accursed." So their gospel, when they say, our gospel did not come to you in word only, Their gospel is THE gospel. This is what Paul is teaching in Galatians 1a. There is not multiple gospels. There is only one true gospel, and anything else that gets preached deserves eternal condemnation. That's the backdrop for them calling this gospel their gospel.

Their gospel is the gospel. So when they say our gospel, they simply mean the gospel which we preach. They're not the source of it. They received it. And then they preached what they received.

It's the one true gospel. What was their gospel? Well we get a glimpse of it in Acts 17. So turn back to Acts 17. Acts 17 is this account of their time in Thessalonica.

And it tells a little bit about the gospel they were preaching. If you turn to Acts chapter 17, I'll read verses 1 through 3. Now when They had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, two other cities that are in Macedonia. They came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying, This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.

So this is what Paul is preaching in his time, at least the beginning of his time in Thessalonica. He's going into the synagogue for three consecutive Sabbaths. He's opening up the Scriptures. He's opening up the Old Testament and saying, okay, here is what the Old Testament says about the Messiah. God has promised to send a Savior and a Redeemer, and here is what the Old Testament says about him.

It says that he has to suffer and die. There is an act of redemption. There is a suffering servant as we see in Isaiah 53. I am preaching Jesus and I am saying Jesus is that. Jesus is this promised Messiah that God said He would send to redeem sinners.

So it's Christ crucified is the Gospel that Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are preaching in Thessalonica. That is his gospel. It's the gospel of a crucified Christ, a Messiah who comes to lay down His life to be a substitute for sinners. So this is their gospel and they are arguing that the gospel is of God. It is of God.

It's not a lecture of certain facts to pull the Thessalonians away from one God to another God. As had probably been done many times in Thessalonica. You're a worshiper of Zeus, you should also be a worshiper of Hermes. You're a worshiper of Hermes, you should also be a worshiper of the Emperor who's also a God. You're a worshiper of these gods, you should add to that the gods of Egypt.

In Thessalonica, the more gods the better. The more gods that can favor you and shield you from disaster, the better. But Paul is arguing that the Gospel that he is preaching is fundamentally different than that. The God that he preached is the living and true God. We are coming to that in verse 9.

And that this is a God worth forsaking all the other idols for. It's an exclusive Gospel. The Gospel of Paul and Silvanus and Timothy is an exclusive Gospel that calls explicitly for the forsaking of every other hope to cling to the one hope, Jesus. And that God Himself enters into that. He's not a fake God.

You can't make him out of silver or gold and bow down to Him. He is the one who made all the silver and the gold, who made everything that you see and know, and He commands you to forsake every other hope to cling to the one hope, Jesus. And Because he is a living God, it is a living gospel, and God Himself enters into the preaching. So it is not like any other kind of proselytizing to draw you in to adding another God to the shelf of God's. Those are dead words.

Nobody is entering into that preaching. Paul is saying, God enters into our preaching. It's the gospel of God. It's His gospel and He enters into the preaching of His glad tidings. That's what gospel means.

So that the preaching of this gospel, That in the preaching of this gospel, God supernaturally renders the most fundamental change. God enters into the preaching of His glad tidings. Supernaturally to render the most fundamental change. It's resurrection from the dead. It's resurrection from the dead.

It's not the brain acquiring a little bit of knowledge and adding another God to the shelf. It is resurrection from the dead. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, as they're writing to the Thessalonians, says four things about the coming of this Gospel. They say four things about the coming of this Gospel. Here's the first thing.

Did not come in word only. They start by saying this, this grand gospel that raises the dead did not come in word only. I want you to consider two texts. The first one I want to go to, which is Romans chapter 10. Turn to Romans chapter 10.

You're very familiar with this text. You'll recognize it instantly when we get there. But it's critical to what Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are teaching here. About their gospel not coming in word only. Romans chapter 10 I'd like to read 14 through 18.

Romans chapter 10 verse 14. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things.

But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Paul starts with salvation and he backs up, he works upstream. You are saved by calling on Him. Well how can you call on Him unless you believe?

How can you believe unless you hear? How can you hear unless they send? So He is working upstream from salvation to preaching. And even up from preaching to the sending of the preacher. So the gospel is words.

This is what we learn from Romans 10. The Gospel is words, but when it's effectual, when it hits the target, it's not only words. You got that? There's these two parts. And in the effectual coming of the Gospel, they're together.

You have the words, but it's not only words. There's something behind the words, in the words. In verse 16, here in Romans 10, verse 16 and 17, Paul acknowledges what we have all experienced. Not everyone who hears the gospel obeys the gospel. Isn't that true?

The Gospel is preached poorly or well? And some believe and some don't believe. If it's preached poorly, sometimes people believe anyway, while others don't. When it's preached well, sometimes people don't believe it. Anyway.

So that's the first text that has a direct bearing on the Gospel not coming in word only. But it is words. Romans 10, that's the big takeaway from Romans 10. The Gospel is words. So Paul's not running down a Gospel of words here.

Paul teaches that the gospel is a gospel of words. It must be preached. It is not mystical. Salvation isn't mystical. There is something supernatural about it.

But it comes from a preached gospel of words. And not everyone obeys it when they hear it. Listen to this second text. This is what Jesus teaches in Matthew 11. It's short, so I'll just read it.

You can go there if you want. Matthew 11 verses 25-27 says this, At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so Father, for it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the One to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." This explains how people get raised from the dead.

Not just the preaching of the words of the Gospel, which are necessary. Romans 10 says it's necessary how you believe. No one preaches the words. But then Jesus in Matthew 11 explains how the dead are raised. And he explains how two people can be sitting side by side and hear the demand to repent and believe and one does and is changed and is raised from the dead and the other doesn't and goes home just like they came.

And it's that God hides and reveals. God hides and reveals. This is a hard truth about today's text and about what the Bible teaches. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes." So there is this very earthly element common to every endeavor, words. You've got to have words to get anywhere in pretty much any category.

You need instruction. You need the revealing of things. And the Gospel is that. It is words. But when the Gospel is effectual, there is also a heavenly element.

There is a supernatural element that God enters into the preaching and reveals. Where there was blindness, there is sight. Where there was deafness, there is hearing and understanding. The Bible describes our natural state as dead in sins and transgressions. You give instructions to the corpse.

Do it. I've read an account of a seminary class where the professor takes the preaching students to the graveyard to preach to the tombstones. To make this point. You can preach whatever sermon you want. You can say whatever words you want to the tombstones.

That was the point of that lesson of that seminary class. Preach to the headstones. Something more is required. The words are required, but something more is required when someone is dead in sins and transgressions. We need more than a good sermon.

We need life from the dead. That was point number one from verse five. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 5. The Gospel did not come in word only. Again, Paul not in Silas, Silvanus, and Timothy not running down the words.

The Gospel is words. But saying, it didn't come in word only to hit the target. Something more is required. That brings us to point number two, which tells us what this other element is. Came in power.

Came in power. In 2004, I remember watching a speech at the Democratic National Convention of a newly elected senator from Illinois. And it was amazing. I'm not a Democrat, but I was watching out of interest. And it was electric.

The speech was electric. And it propelled this newly elected Senator from Illinois onto the national scene, and he's our President now. This is not that. What Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are describing in 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 5, our text, is not Barack Obama at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, electrifying the crowd. It's different than that.

Good speakers learn how to move their hearers. And there's a good living to be made from acquiring that skill. You go on the speaker tour and you move your hearers and the word gets out that people felt the tingles from what you talked about, and then you can write your own ticket. This is not that. This is not Paul learning the techniques to move his hearers.

Listen to what Paul writes to Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 4 and 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 4 and 5, Paul writes, And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." So in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 he's writing to the Corinthians describing the coming of the gospel to them. And he says that his speech and his preaching wasn't about persuasive words of wisdom, of human wisdom. But his preaching was accompanied by a demonstration of the Spirit and power. Very similar words, a very similar teaching to what we have in our text today.

And Paul says there is a reason for that. I don't want your faith to be in human wisdom. I want it to be in the power of God. God is the true and living God. If that's true, there better be more than just words.

There better be power there somewhere. Or what would be the distinction between him and all the other gods in Thessalonica? Here's something else he writes to the Thessalonians. In 2 Corinthians 12 verse 12. He says, truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance in signs and wonders and mighty deeds." So when he's writing 2 Corinthians he talks about signs of an apostle And these are miracles that He worked among the Corinthians.

Now when we go back to Acts chapter 17, and see the historical account that we have from Scripture of Paul's time in Thessalonica, we don't see anything about miracles. And I don't know whether he did or didn't. I think it's quite possible that there were miracles in Thessalonica, but the meaning of our text this week doesn't depend on that. But for sure, when God was giving scripture revelation to his apostles, he backed it up with signs of the apostles, miracles that we don't see now. Because he was giving a demonstration that The gospel being preached was a true gospel, and God was sending the confirmation through miraculous deeds.

So it could have been that in Thessalonica. He could be partially referencing that. But he's definitely referencing this. And the this is in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. So turn there.

1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. The power that the gospel came in, it's being spoken of in our text, could have been miracles. Paul might have worked miracles there. He worked miracles a lot of places we don't know for sure if he did or didn't.

But whether or not he did or didn't, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 talks about the power of the gospel that is definitely being spoken of in our text. In our text. I want to begin in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 reading in verse 18 and read through 25. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than man. First Corinthians chapter one, Paul is talking about preaching, and he calls it something strange for being a preacher himself, it's strange that he would call preaching foolishness.

But what he's teaching in 1 Corinthians 1 is that this is how God has desired to glorify himself, to take something that is so foolish, so in and of itself incapable of raising a dead man and using it as the vehicle for his power. Preaching is the vehicle for the power of God in salvation. It's not separate from the power of God. It's the channel for the power of God and salvation why because it pleased him to do it that way That's what Paul teaches in first Corinthians one it pleases God To enter into the preaching of the glad tidings of Jesus and use that as a method to shame the worldly wise. He enters into the preaching of frail, feeble men who can't lay claim to any worldly wisdom.

And he uses that to humble the worldly wise. The power of God is there. How can something be a stumbling block to some, and foolishness to others, but the power of God and the wisdom of God to others still. How can that be? It's the working of God.

That's how it can be. That's how it can be so radically different. To the Jews, it's a stumbling block. Christ, Jesus, crucified, is the stumbling block that they just can't get over. To the Greeks, it's foolishness.

There's no human wisdom in that. Now think about this in the Thessalonian context. Nobody's going to clap for you when you embrace the gospel of a crucified savior in Thessalonica. That's going to get you nothing but trouble in this pagan city that worships many gods so that they'll do you favors. Think of how they're going to look at you when you say, I'm following the guy who was crucified.

No applause for that. But Paul teaches the power of God enters into preaching. So first, it did not come in word only. Secondly, it came in power. Thirdly, it came in the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel came to them in the Holy Spirit. It was a work of the Spirit. In John, the Gospel of John, Chapter 14, 15, and 16, it's full of Jesus teaching about the sending of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If you ever have anyone who wants to talk about spiritual gifts, wants to start a discussion about the Holy Spirit in miraculous gifts, say, oh stop, let's go back and start where Jesus started teaching about the sending of the Spirit and the work of the Spirit. Let's lay that as a foundation for this discussion.

John 14, 15, 16. Here's what Jesus says about the sending of the Spirit in John chapter 16. In John chapter 16 verses 7 and 8, Jesus says this, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you.

And when He comes, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Jesus said, ìIt is better that I go away than that I stay.î Why? Because if I go away, I will send the Spirit to you. And when the Spirit is sent into the world, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. This is what happened in Thessalonica.

Not mystically, through preaching. The Spirit was there Helping the preacher, helping the hearers, and doing this through the preaching. Convicting of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. And that's just what Jesus promised would happen in Acts 1-8. In Acts 1-8, Jesus says, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

They have power Because the Holy Spirit had come upon them to be witnesses. This is the fulfillment of that. And the fulfillment is still happening. You get that. The Holy Spirit was sent in the world and never recalled in the last two thousand years.

The Holy Spirit has not been recalled. He was sent in Acts chapter 2 and He is still here. Why is He here? To convict of sin and righteousness and judgment. He enters into preaching.

He inspires preaching. Not in the same way as Scripture. I'm not teaching anything loony here, I hope. God promised it. And here we see part of the fulfillment of it, and the fulfillment is still happening.

So first, it did not come in word only. Second, it came in power. Third, it came in the Holy Spirit just as God said it would. And fourth, it came in much assurance. The Gospel came to Thessalonica in much assurance.

The NASB and the ESV translations render it full conviction. The Gospel came in full conviction. If you go to a Greek lexicon, you'll see most certain confidence. The Gospel came in most certain confidence, in full conviction, in much assurance. That's the range of meaning.

Whose assurance? Was it the assurance of the preacher or was it the assurance of the hearer? In fact you could ask the same question of the gospel coming in power, the Gospel coming in the Holy Spirit. What was the power for the hearer or for the preacher? Was the Holy Spirit working on the hearer or working on the preacher?

And I think as we think through this we would have to say, when God enters into preaching to save sinners, He's present in every part of the equation. Of course, the power and the Holy Spirit and the assurance is in the preacher. Of course, the power and the Holy Spirit and the assurance is in the hearer. Every part of the equation that's how God enters into the preaching in the preacher or in the hearer. Yes, yes in the preacher and in the hearers.

Let's not choose as if God is doing this in the preacher but not the hearers. That doesn't make any sense. Or that God is doing this in the hearers but not the preacher. That doesn't make any sense. God is entering into both sides of the equation to work salvation to raise someone from the dead.

This is the miracle of the new birth. It's a miracle when someone is born again. So the preachers, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, are preaching with most certain confidence. They know that they know that they know that they know that they know that Jesus died for sinners and that God will save anyone who will repent and believe the gospel. They know it.

Much assurance. The most certain confidence. And the hearers know that they know that they know that they know that they know that what is being spoken to them is God's words, not man's words. We're going to come to that in chapter two. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are going to give thanks that they received the preaching not as man's words but as it is in truth the word of God.

There was much assurance, there was the most certain confidence on both sides and so that both the preachers and the hearers are prepared to lay aside the advantages of all other allegiances and risk life and limb to cling to this Gospel. That's how you know that it came in power, that it came in the Holy Spirit, that it came in much assurance because these preachers and these hearers were willing to walk away from all the allegiances that have brought them so many advantages in their past, and forego all those advantages, and become the subject of ridicule, and joyfully endure the plundering of their goods and maybe the taking of their lives to cling to a gospel that saves. So the first big point of the sermon was the coming of an effectual gospel. A gospel that hits the mark, that does what was intended, which is the salvation of sinners. It was effectual.

The second great point of this verse is the gospel lives of gospel preachers. So if you're taking notes on the handout, this is the second point. And the blanks are lives preachers. The gospel lives of gospel preachers. Here it is in verse 5.

As you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. You know how we lived among you? By the way, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are going to keep coming back to this and keep coming back to this and keep coming back to this throughout the five chapters of the letter. You're going to say it a bunch of times. You saw how we lived among you.

You saw how we worked. You saw how we loved you. There's a wrong way to look at this I think. The wrong way to look at this is that Paul and Silvanus and Timothy were on their best behavior because they were preaching. Stay out of the saloon boys, we're preaching here.

So They were extra careful over their lives because they were preaching. So they went out of their way to be something that they wouldn't have been otherwise. There's a right way to look at this. I think the right way is that the Gospel makes fundamental promises regarding the lives of those who were born again and those who were on display in the lives of Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. The Gospel makes promises about your life if you're saved.

The Gospel makes promises. And they could look at the life of Paul and the life of Silvanus and the life of Timothy and say, the Gospel promises are fulfilled in the lives of these men. I think there are three fundamental promises that the Gospel makes about your life. First, peace with God. Doesn't the Gospel promise that you'll be reconciled to God if you repent and believe?

That God will take out a heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and you used to be at war with God, but the war is over if you embrace the gospel. That's a fundamental promise of the gospel. That's probably the most fundamental promise of the gospel. The war is over. The enmity against God is over.

And now you're not an enemy, you're a son or a daughter. The Thessalonians could look at Paul and Silvanus and Timothy and see men at peace with God. The war was over. They knew God as a father, not as an adversary. Second, the power of sin is broken.

The gospel makes this promise that though the natural man lives as a slave to sin, that when we're born again, We're not slaves to sin anymore. The power of sin is broken. That doesn't mean we're sinless. No! No one feels more sinful than Christians.

Here's the great paradox. People who are at war with God never feel it. They Never feel the weight of their sin or feel it so slightly, but the people who are most reconciled to God and have made progress in the faith feel the most sinful. This is on display in the life of Paul. He ends up in the letter that he writes latest, I forget which letter it is, he ends up saying, I'm the chief of sinners.

You don't feel less sinful as you make progress in the faith, you feel more sinful. I'm not talking about being sinless. I'm talking about not being a slave to sin. Not having to serve it like it's your master. The Thessalonians could look at Paul and Silvanus and Timothy and see these were men who were not slaves to sin.

They were free to serve God and not sin. They were at peace with Him and they were free to live to His honor. Did you know this? Non-Christians are not free to live to the honor of God. They are bound up.

They are slaves. They are captives. In their minds, from time to time, they may think they don't want to serve that, but they don't have a choice. They are slaves to sin. The third promise of the Gospel is the indwelling of the Spirit that produces the fruit of the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These nine things That all have counterfeits, but none of which can be sustained long term in the life of an unbeliever. That's impossible. It's the fruit of the Spirit. You can't get it any other way.

You can get a cheap counterfeit that lasts for a little bit of time. But the fruit of the Spirit is lasting and deep. And the counterfeits fall away and the fruit of the Spirit remains. They could look at the lives of Paul and Silvanus and Timothy and see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, Goodness, faithfulness, self-control. I think I messed that up.

Anyway, the nine fruits of the Spirit. They could see that. Listen to what commentator Gene Green says, There was great harmony between the character of the missionaries and the message they preached. Did you get that? Are you with me so far?

There was great harmony between the character of the missionaries and the message they preached, as the Thessalonians themselves could testify. Far from being a question of little importance, the character of the messengers was part of the message they preached. The character of Paul and Silvanus and Timothy was part of the message that they preached. The Thessalonians could hear the proclamation, see its power, and observe how the message was lived. So they could hear it, and they could see it, and they could see how it's lived out.

The Gospel came to Thessalonica in effectual power. It hit the target, the salvation of pagan sinners. And we see the gospel lives of the gospel preachers. Their character was part of the message. Three applications.

Number one, give attention to the words. Our verse today is not bad mouthing the words of the Gospel. Far from it. The Gospel that they preach, that we saw in Acts 17, is the gospel of Christ crucified. So the question for us is, is your gospel the gospel?

Paul says there's one saving gospel, if you preach another gospel you should be eternally accursed. Is your gospel the gospel? Parents preach a gospel in our homes every day. Is our gospel the gospel of Christ crucified? We have to be so aware of the words of what we're preaching, and that it doesn't slip and slide to where we've added things to Christ crucified, or that we hardly talk about Christ crucified at all.

And we only work on behavior. Now what gospel is that if Christ crucified isn't always before them in our teaching, but we talk about politeness and how we treat each other. Now these things are fruits of the Gospel. Is your Gospel the Gospel of Christ crucified? Give attention to your words.

Number two, don't rely on the words. The gospel is a gospel of words, but if you rely on them, that's not where the dead get raised. That's not how the dead get raised. Don't rely on the words, rely on God. This means seeking God.

This means not just speaking, but praying. Pleading with God to enter into the teaching of Christ crucified so that your hearers would be hearers that obey the Gospel. This has all sorts of implications for us. It means that if that stubborn little kid who has your same last name is just dead. So you can rage in your heart against the kid with your last name if you want to.

Your energy is better spent laboring with God. To raise them from the dead. Not brow-beating the kid. We should be persistent with our presentation of the Gospel. I'm with you.

That's not lost on me. We should be persistent. You can't browbeat unbelievers from being unbelievers. They're dead in sins and transgressions. And yes, that's self-inflicted, but it doesn't change the fact.

Hey, go to the graveyard. Yell at the gravestones. What does this mean for our outreaches? What does this mean in the Griffins parking lot tomorrow night? There are going to be some people there that are going to be dead and there are sins and transgressions.

The Gospel is going to be preached. If it comes in word only, they are going to leave as they came. Dead. And you don't control that. I don't control that.

God controls that. We should be earnestly laboring with God in prayer. That He would enter into the preaching so that it wouldn't come in word only, but that it would come in power in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance on the part of the preacher and on the part of the hearers. This has been so convicting. This is not new truth.

Anybody heard anything they didn't already know today? No. These are things you've already heard. I don't have new material for you today or hardly any Sunday. But it has radical implications for how we approach these things.

For how we approach family worship. For how we approach the nursing homes, the times at the nursing home, the times at Griffin's parking lot, preaching the Gospel. We better be desperately laboring with God that he would enter into this preaching, or nothing is going to happen, or it's a waste of time. It's not exactly true. It's never a waste of time to obey God.

Number three, lastly, Consider your life. One, give attention to the words. Number two, don't rely on the words. Number three, consider your life. Is it preaching that the Gospel delivers on its promises?

What's your life preaching? That the Gospel delivers on its promises. What's your life preaching? That the Gospel delivers on its promises? Is your life preaching that you have peace with God?

Is your life preaching that the power of sin is broken? You don't have to serve it like a slave. Is your life preaching that The Holy Spirit takes these seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control and brings them to bloom. The character of the messenger is part of the message. It's easy to undo every word with the gospel that our lives are preaching.

I leave you with the valley of dry bones. Taylor saved me the time. I was going to close with this. It's wonderful. It was better as a prelude than as a postlude.

Here are the dry bones. Very dry, says Ezekiel chapter 37. God asks Ezekiel, can these bones live? Ezekiel answered rightly, God you know. Why ask me, you know.

I can't make them live. May God enter into the preaching of the gospel that we do to breathe life on dry bones in our homes with our neighbors in Griffin's parking lot. The working lot. The natural man, the condemned man, doesn't need intellectual agreement with a new idea. He needs to be raised from dead, from death to life.

Only God can do that. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are able to look back at the Thessalonians and say, God did that here. God raised you from the dead. Let's pray. God, we're humbled.

I'm glad we're humbled. Thank you, Lord, for humbling us. Making it so abundantly clear that the best we can do is go and do something that's foolish. Preaching. And that there's nothing about it that will cause it to hit the mark, cause it to hit the target.

You must enter into it in power, in the Holy Spirit, in much assurance, to give new birth. It is a miracle when you do that. God, we pray that You would make us a people who labor to this end, not just in preaching, but in wrestling with You for Your blessing. As Jacob wrestled with you and said, I will not go until you bless me. We would wrestle with you that way over the preaching that you have us doing in the various places where you have us doing it.

God, that we would not be content just to go and do our duty, but we would want the Gospel to hit its mark in the salvation of sinners. Pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.