The sermon by Jason Dohm discusses the theme of 'Thanks to God for Election by God', drawing from 1 Thessalonians 1:1-4. It emphasizes thanksgiving to God for His election, which bears fruit in the lives of believers. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are presented as co-authors of the letter, highlighting their roles in the early church. The sermon underscores the importance of Christian virtues—faith, love, and hope—and their visible manifestations in the lives of believers. It explains the concept of election by God as His choice before the foundation of the world, leading to salvation and the bearing of spiritual fruit. The sermon also stresses the significance of thanksgiving and prayer as foundational elements of the Christian life, calling believers to acknowledge God's role as the source of all good and to live lives characterized by gratitude and dependence on Him through prayer.

Sermon text for today is 1st Thessalonians verses 2 through 4, but we're going to start at 1. Greetings, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians in 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, 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." The title of the sermon this morning is, thanks to God for election by God. I'm simply borrowing words from the beginning, the very beginning and the very end of our text.

It's a thanksgiving to God. What is it a thanksgiving to God for? It's for election by God and that election always bears fruit and that's essentially what all of the text is about. Last week we had the very beginning of this letter from Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. These three men are clearly led by Paul, but it's not Paul and three minimum wage workers.

You have Paul, the great apostle, but you have Silvanus, who is a leading man from the leading church. He is a leading man from the church in Jerusalem. He is a mighty man of God in his own right and in Acts chapter 15 he is called a prophet. And you have Timothy who is a treasured son in the faith where when Paul can't be somewhere in person he repeatedly sends Timothy to preach and to pastor and to establish these fragile new churches. So these are three mighty men of God who are co-laboring together to send a letter of encouragement to a new church.

And it is to a church, we see this word church, that Jesus introduces in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 16 where Jesus says that He will build His church on a rock and that the gates of hell won't be able to prevail against this church. It's those who God calls out of the world to be his and to be joined together as brothers and sisters. More on that in this text. So you have three mighty men of God writing to a church that the gates of hell cannot prevail against and they bring a greetings. And Paul has either written or co-written 13 letters in the New Testament, and he always starts every single one of them the same way.

Grace and peace. From this we get that God has one message. If His people don't get any other message from the New Testament, they ought to get this one. The one that is 100% in Paul's 13 letters. Grace.

Unmerited favor from God. God wants you to know He sends you a greetings of grace and peace. Being reconciled to God and being reconciled to each other because we are reconciled to God. So we had just a glorious introduction and greetings to this letter. This week we have some great bookends to our short text, just three verses.

And It's thanks to God and it's election by God, verse two and verse four, the beginning and the very end of our text. The things that are within the bookends, the thanksgiving to God and the election by God, are just related to those things. They are hemmed in before and behind. They have a very distinct relationship. We will get into that during the sermon.

But here is an overview of what we find in this text. There are commendable things that are happening among these new converts, this new church. Good things! But our co-authors, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, are going to keep the good things connected to the source of the good things, and that's God. In other words, He's not going to let these new believers be puffed up at the progress that God in His mercy has given them.

He's just going to keep it so tightly connected. Thanksgiving is to be given for these good things. It's to be given to God. And It is flowing from a source. The source of these good things is the election by God.

It is an election of grace of sinners. Let's go to the text in prayer. God, I thank you for the election of grace of sinners. Before you made the world, You called out the names of those who would be saved by grace. And it wasn't anything in themselves, it was something in you.

I thank you that Our text takes us here today so that we can revel in it, so that we can rejoice that you are a God of mercy, where fairness would have all condemned, But you have planned from the foundation of the world to show mercy, to have objects of mercy, so that your goodness and compassion could be on display. Those who you have chosen to be merciful to then would have marks in their lives. Thank you for your marks in our lives that demonstrate that there is something real and genuine that you have done as a work of your spirit. Now press all these truths home, God, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. I'd like to begin by just reading verse two and looking at verse two by itself.

This verse is about thanksgiving and prayers to God. Thanksgiving to God and prayers to God. Let's look at verse 2 together. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. Every word and every phrase of verse 2 answers a question.

So I just want to work through the questions that get answered here. And that's probably the most efficient and effective way to go through the truths in this verse. So here's the first question. Who? We is the who.

We got that from verse one. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. This is a corporate action. Everything described in verses two, three, and four are a corporate action. The who is the we from verse one.

It is our three co-authors. Everything in these three verses in view, the subject of these things are Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. The next question is what? We give thanks. What in these verses is the giving of thanks of these three men.

They have experienced things among the Thessalonians, these converts. Some Jews and a great multitude of Greeks. And Paul and Silvanus and Timothy have been among them and they have shared experiences. So there are things that they have experienced that are a source of thanksgiving, but not just that. After they got run out of town, there has been a report that has come.

So look at this in chapter 3, I want to link this forward in the letter a little bit in chapter 3. Look at verses 1 and 2 with me. Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone and sent Timothy our brother and minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith. So Paul has desired to go back himself, but he's been unable to go back himself. When he can't stand it any longer, he and Silvanus stay in Athens and they send Timothy to go and bring back a report and to establish them in the truths of the faith.

Now look at verses 6-8. We are still in chapter 3. But now that Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always have a good remembrance of us, greatly desiring to see us as we also to see you. Therefore, brethren, in all our affliction and distress we were comforted concerning you by your faith. For now we live if you stand fast in the Lord." So they couldn't stand it, the separation any longer.

They sent Timothy. Timothy goes, he establishes them in the truths of the faith, and he comes back, he brings a report. And now, in addition to their first hand experience which is a source of thanksgiving they have a report that they are continuing in the faith that they are staying steadfast that there is love and faith among them and that they are sticking it out. They are persevering. So this is the what?

We give thanks. The next question, to whom? Who is the thanks to? To God. Of course the thanks is to God.

This is not a general warm feeling of thanksgiving out into the universe. There is an object to be thanked. That is God. It is God to be thanked for these good things that they've observed with their own two eyes and that they've gotten in the report from Timothy. It's targeted Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving targeted to God. They know exactly who they ought to be thanking. These things are the work of God. Next question. When?

Always? At least weeks and probably months have passed and in those months they have not been able to get this out of their minds. They are always remembering in their prayers. They are always giving thanks to God. In verse three we are going to see this reinforced.

Remembering without ceasing. We always give thanks to God for the good things that we have seen established in your lives. We remember it without ceasing. Next question, for whom? For you all, the whole church, every single convert, Jew and Gentile.

Those who have made progress fast and those who might be lagging a little behind in progress. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy corporately give thanks for all of them. No one is left out. It's to the whole church of the Thessalonians. We're very individualistic.

We like to track our own progress. Paul is looking at them as a church. Silvanus is looking at them as a church. Timothy is looking at them as a church. Timothy is looking at them as a church, as a body of believers.

And they are giving thanks for all. No one is left behind in the thanksgiving. Finally, how? How is the Thanksgiving given? Making mention of you in our prayers.

They are praying prayers of thanksgiving to God. That is how this thanksgiving goes to God through prayer. Undoubtedly, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are praying individually. They're going into their room and they're closing the door and they're praying to God in the secret place, Matthew chapter 6. And, undoubtedly, as they travel together, as they minister together, when they're bunking down for the night, they're praying together.

I have no doubt in my mind that these co-laborers are praying individually, and they are praying corporately, and in every instance they are remembering these Thessalonians in their prayer. They have things to be thankful for, and what they have witnessed with their own two eyes in the report that has come back from Timothy. Here in this verse, very simply, we have thanksgiving and we have prayer, both absolutely essential in the Christian life. I'm so glad they are here in this verse. I'm so glad these three co-authors have brought us to these two things.

We need these things in spades. We need these things so firmly established in our own lives. They are essential, they are foundational for you and for me in the faith. Thanksgiving and prayer. They go together and they are absolutely foundational.

Here is what we have in 1 Thessalonians. We have co-authors, three men who model this thanksgiving and who call us to these things. So they model thanksgiving in prayer, I'm going to show you that. And then they call us to thanksgiving in prayer. I'm going to show you that.

How do they model thanksgiving? Well, it's right here. They're giving thanks. So we see it here. But we don't just see it here.

We also, if you look in chapter 2 verse 13, we see them giving thanks again for how the Thessalonians received the word that was preached as the word of God and then they persevered in the face of intense persecution. Look at chapter 2 verse 13, For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God you welcomed it as it is in truth. Here it is again. Chapter 1, there is giving of thanks to God. In chapter 2, there is giving of thanks to God.

In chapter two there is giving of thanks to God. Prayer, the same thing. These three co-authors, they model it. They speak of their prayers of thanksgiving here in chapter one. Now look at chapter three, verses eleven through thirteen.

There's a prayer embedded in the letter in chapter three, verses eleven through thirteen. Now may our God and Father Himself and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, though we in 1 Thessalonians, are addressing God in this letter and asking that they might abound in progress in the faith. We see it again in chapter 5. Turn one more page to chapter 5, verses 23 and 24.

Here at the end of the letter these co-authors address God again. They embed a prayer into the letter. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. They are calling on God to sanctify this church. And may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful who also will do it. The praying nature of these three men is modeled in this letter. So not only do they model Thanksgiving and prayer as we've seen in the letter, right there in the letter, they now call their readers to. 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 16 through 18. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing.

In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. These are men who give thanks and these are men who pray without ceasing. And then at the end of the letter they say, just as we have done and do do, you do. We give thanks always, you give thanks always. We pray without ceasing, you pray without ceasing.

Look at verse twenty-five, right here at the end of the letter. Brethren, pray for us. We've been praying for you without ceasing. Now you pray for us. They model it in the letter and they call the readers, including us, to it in the letter.

To thanksgiving and to prayer. To lives of thanksgiving and to lives of prayer. To lives characterized by thanksgiving. To lives characterized by prayer. What is giving thanks?

What is it? It's acknowledging God as the source of all good things in your life. It's just that simple. To give thanks is to acknowledge, God, you did this. I didn't do this.

I didn't deserve this. You did this and I thank you for it. It is worship. Giving thanks is worship. That's why it's so essential in the Christian life.

That's why it needs to be so well established in our lives because it's worship. It is to acknowledge that God is the source of all good things. Listen to James chapter one verse seventeen. This just says it in the plainest terms. James 1 verse 17.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." Every good gift comes from above. Does that mean we just paint a smiley face on everything. No, that's not what Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are going to do in this letter. They are going to acknowledge hardship and persecution. And by implication they are going to say that's from God too and we give thanks to God for that too.

It is hard, but it is good. God knows what is good for us, and so He gives us what is good for us, and even when it is hard, we should give thanks for it. We should have lives characterized by thanksgiving. Because every good and every perfect gift is from above. It comes down from God who never changes.

There's no variation or shadow of turning with Him. If thankfulness is an essential virtue, what does that mean about the opposite? It means that thanklessness is a great sin. We think of great sins as murder and adultery and scandalous acts of commission. I think we have before us here that a great sin is a much less scandalous act of omission, neglecting to thank God for the good things that He brings into our lives, even the hardships that stretch us and make us grow.

It's a great sin. The great sins aren't just the things that we do defiantly against God. It's the things we never remember to do. That He deserves our thanks. For breakfast and lunch and dinner and a thousand things beside, he deserves that we would pause and take time and thank him.

Because He has been so good and so kind. What is prayer? If giving thanks is acknowledging God as the source of the good things, then prayer is acknowledging our dependence upon God. It is acknowledging that we can't do what's needed. We depend upon Him.

We are utterly dependent upon Him. That is the acknowledgement of prayer. It's worship. Like the giving of thanks is worship. Prayer is worship because it's coming to say, oh God we need All the things we can't do for ourselves, so we are coming to you in dependence.

It doesn't make us dependent, we are already that. It acknowledges our dependence upon God. It's worship. So just as thanklessness is a great sin of omission, prayerlessness is a great sin of omission. When we don't bother to pray, we're saying we can do it ourselves.

We're rich and in need of nothing. Revelation 2 or 3, I forget which letter to the church it is. I'm rich. I don't need anything. When really you're poor, you're blind, you're naked.

Now let's look at verse three. That's verse two. Thankfulness and prayer. Now verse 3. 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.

In this section we have faith that works, and love that labors, and hope that perseveres. That's what's in this. If you're filling in blanks on verse 2, it was thanksgiving and prayers. Now we are in verse 3. If you are filling in blanks there, it is faith that works, love that labors, and hope that perseveres.

The authors are remembering certain things without ceasing. They can't get these things out of their mind. They just keep thinking about it. Keep remembering what they experienced in the report that they've got. What are these things?

Well there are three things, but let's start with the big picture. The big picture is this. That these new believers have Christian virtues in their heart that are bearing fruit. They are bearing fruit. They are born again.

They had a heart of stone, but God took out the heart of stone and gave them a heart of flesh. The new heart has the seeds of faith and love and hope that are growing and producing fruit. That's the big picture of verse three. Listen to Paul in first Corinthians chapter thirteen. What do we know first Corinthians chapter thirteen has?

The great love chapter. It's love, love, love, love, love from start to finish in first Corinthians chapter thirteen. And here's right at the end of the chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 13, Paul says, and now abide faith, hope, love, These three. These are exactly the virtues that we have in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 3. So, the exact same Christian virtues in view.

Now abide faith, Hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. So what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 about these three virtues is that when you strip everything else away from the regenerate heart, What do you find? These three. You find faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of them is love.

And where they are genuine, they produce good things. They produce fruit. Where there is a genuinely heart of flesh, The heart of stone is really gone. The heart of flesh is really there. You find faith, hope, and love.

They're growing at some sort of a rate, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. Always we're frustrated that it's not faster. I grant all of that. They're growing and producing fruit. So here's what we have before us.

These three. Let's look at them one by one. Number one, the Thessalonians work of faith. This faith of theirs works. The working faith.

Turn to James chapter 2. How can we not turn to James chapter 2? See what James says is the relationship between faith and works. Paul is just saying the same thing. He is looking at these new believers and he is saying you have a faith that works.

You have a Christian virtue that comes embedded in the new heart. That is the promise of the new covenant. And it's genuine. And we can see it because there is an outgrowth from it. This is James chapter 2.

I will begin in 14 and read through 22. James 2, 14. What does it profit my brethren? If someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?

If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled. But you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works.

And I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

Do you see that faith was working together with his works and by works faith was made perfect and the scripture was fulfilled which says Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God. I just went through twenty-three instead of twenty-two. James begins with an example. It's an example of all talk and no substance. It's someone who sees someone who doesn't have food or clothing and they just talk.

They wish them well. Be warm and be fed. But they don't actually do anything. James says there is zero profit to that. There is no substance there.

There is only gibbering. It's words only. There is no Substance. Probably 20 or 25 years ago, Wendy's had a commercial. They had an old lady who would say, where's the beef?

She would go into the competitors and she would get a hamburger and then she would be looking at the hamburger, looking in the hamburger, and saying, like, where's the beef? Like a burger is about the beef. And Wendy's was mocking their competitors saying there's nothing in there. You know, there's no substance here. It's all bun and lettuce.

Where is the beef? That's what James says about the Christian life. Where is the beef? Talk is cheap. Where is the substance?

Burgers are about Beef, meat. The faith is about something substantial. If you talk but there is no change that results in work, then there is nothing really there. It is air. So that works demonstrate the reality.

Don't get this wrong. Don't change the order here. The order is everything. If you get the order wrong, you end up with works based salvation. That is not what James or anyone else in the New Testament is teaching.

But everyone in the New Testament teaches the same thing, which is that works demonstrate the reality. In other words, if there is really a new heart there, it really changes your life. It is impossible to have a new heart and not have a changed life. That is impossible according to Jesus and Peter and James and John and Silvanus and Timothy. So the works don't create the reality, they demonstrate the reality.

You got it? Once and for all. Works don't create the reality. They don't create a new heart. You can't work your way into a new heart.

But a new heart will always work. It says that Abraham was justified by works. Now, wait a minute. Justified by works. Understand how James is using the word.

The word justified is used in two different ways in the New Testament. One way is used as a legal term to mean that You are pronounced innocent. You are pronounced just. So, it is not being used that way here. The other way it is being used is the way that we often use it.

Meaning that it is shown to be true. Meaning if we were to use the word justified, most of the time we would not use it in the legal sense. We would use it in the sense that I felt justified for saying this because this happened. What I said was proved to be true by this other thing. Jesus uses it in that way in Matthew chapter 11 verse 19.

Jesus says that wisdom is justified by her children. It's the exact same Greek word used here. Jesus says wisdom is justified by her children. He's not saying that wisdom is declared just and innocent by her children. No, he's saying wisdom is proved to be wise by the results.

That's the children of wisdom. Then James goes on to say that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. He's quoting Genesis 15 which is long in Genesis before Isaac. So The faith is early in Genesis and the proof, the demonstration of the faith is much later in Genesis. It's so clear what James is teaching here.

He's not teaching justification by works. He's saying that the faith was proven by the works that he did. It was a demonstration. The offering up of Isaac was a demonstration that there was something real down in Abraham's heart. This is what the Thessalonians had.

We're going to see it in the coming weeks. We're going to see that even though they were a young church, they were a mighty church that had become an example to all in Macedonia and Achaia. And that The word of the Lord had sounded forth from them. There was substance. Substance.

Not just words. To their faith. They had a working faith. So should we, so must we. Secondly, the Thessalonians labor of love.

This love of theirs labors. Their faith works and their love labors. The Greek lexicon, from the Greek lexicon, One word doesn't do this Greek word justice, labors. So I'm going to give you the lexicon, meaning the expansion of it. That does a better job of giving it justice.

Intense labor united with trouble and toil. That's what's loaded into this Greek word that is simply translated as labor of love. Labor. Intense labor united with trouble and toil, blood, sweat, and tears in our modern language, laboring to weariness, Extra mile labor. That's what we have in this word.

We have an example right here in the letter. So look in chapter 2 at verse 9. The same word is going to be used. Paul uses it of himself in chapter 2 and his conduct among the Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 9, For you remember brethren our labor and toil.

For laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preach to you the gospel of God." So Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are talking to the Thessalonians about the life they lived among them. They said we labor night and day with toil. That is all of what is loaded into this word, labor of love. If you actually back up to verse 7, chapter 2 verse 7, But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the Gospel of God but also our own lives.

This was a labor of love. The Thessalonians experienced A labor of love. A toiling, wearisome labor of love among them. They sought in Paul, in Silvanus, in Timothy, and they've learned to do it. They're following after them.

When Paul says in chapter 1, you became followers of us, he really means it. A labor of love was done among them. The gospel was brought to them that way. A wearisome, toiling, night and day, extra mile labor, and it rubbed off on the Thessalonians. Thirdly, the Thessalonians' patience of hope, This hope of theirs produces patience, it produces perseverance.

The NASB and the ESB render this steadfastness of hope, instead of patience of hope. Steadfastness of hope. This Hope, this internal virtue that you can't see, produces a steadfastness and a clinging and a holding on and a persevering that you can see. Here's what the Greek lexicon says about this word that is translated patience in the New King James. Steadfastness, constancy, endurance, a patient steadfast waiting for.

Waiting for what? Waiting for Christ to deliver them. Waiting for Christ to act and to save and to sustain. In chapter two, our co-authors are going to give thanks that the Thessalonians had endured intense persecution. They say persecution that just like what the Judean churches have experienced, which includes martyrdom.

And they made it! The persecution didn't drive them away from the faith. How did they make it? They are so young in the faith. Why did they make it?

Why would they forsake all the comforts and safety associated with just having done with the gospel? Because they have A hope, a living hope, an unseen hope that produces something that is easy to see. They can bear up under a lot of intense persecution. It's producing something. And what is the object of their hope?

The text tells us patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. That is what the hope is in. Jesus! This hope is not wishful thinking. This is a hope that holds onto Jesus as a sure refuge who is able to finish everything He starts.

Hey, you got that? It's not wishful thinking. It is a sure hope in Christ. It's substantial. That clings onto Him as one who is able to deliver, who is able to finish everything that he starts.

So you can make it another day because he finishes everything he starts. Then We have this final phrase in the verse, in the sight of our God and Father. All this is done before God. All this is done unto God. The work of faith, the labor of love, the patience of hope, all before God, in the sight of God, unto God.

And God the Father is looking on with pleasure. Did you know that? When we have these internal virtues, faith, love, and hope that work outward and produce fruit, God looks on with pleasure. It's all done in the sight of God. We are doing it before Him.

And He takes pleasure in seeing fruit come from His goodness. In giving salvation to people who don't deserve salvation. This is a pleasure to God. Brothers and sisters, this is why Christians are supposed to be such a peculiar people. This is why real Christians are a peculiar people because they have new hearts and new lives.

It's folly to say I've got a new heart with the same old life year after year after year. That can't be. It can't be that you've got a new heart and the same old life year after year after year. That's impossible. That's not the God of the Bible.

It cannot be that the Holy Spirit indwells something and produces nothing year after year after year. That's blasphemy. These Thessalonians have inner realities, faith, love, hope that have outer manifestations and so it is with every Christian that ever was. You have inner realities that produce outer manifestations. Fruit!

Outer manifestations is a fancy way to say fruit. Now there is a shortcut and a counterfeit for everything in the Christian life and so it is here. You can counterfeit fruit for a while, and you fool me, or I'll fool you. But neither of us can fool God, and in the long run, it disappears. It disappears.

Verse 4. Verse 4. Knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. Knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. Knowing beloved brethren, your election by God.

Our authors attribute the fruit to the real root. Where does this come from? Where does this work of faith come from? Where does this labor, this toiling night and day, wearisome labor of love come from? Where does this patience of hope that allows them to endure intense persecution and keep growing and abounding in the faith?

Where does that come from? Personal goodness? No way. Personal effort? No way.

No. From a choice that God made before the foundation of the earth. It comes from election. That Greek word means an act of picking out. An act of picking out.

An act of choosing. So Paul only barely touches on it here, but he speaks more extensively of it in Ephesians chapter 1 and 2. So please turn to Ephesians chapter 1 and 2. It helps us to understand what election is and isn't, And that's very important because Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are attributing all the fruit in the lives of these new believers to election. Knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God.

God picked you out. God picked you out. If you are filling in blanks, verse 4, the source, election by God. Ephesians chapter 1, I would like to read 1 through 14. I'd like to read 1 and 2 just so you can see how similar the introduction and greeting is to what we're seeing in 1 Thessalonians.

And then the rest is about election. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Sound familiar? Yes. Verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, To the praise of the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the beloved. That's Christ. Verse seven. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

Having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself. That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory." Lots of long sentences and a long reading.

But I want to go back through and show you election in these verses. First look at verse four. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He, God the Father, chose us in Him, Jesus, God the Son, before the foundation of the world. When did election happen?

Before the foundation of the world. Before the world was ever made, the names were in a book. Look at verse 5, Having predestined us to adoption. Having predestined, destined beforehand, settled it beforehand that we would be adopted. We weren't in the family, but he said beforehand, I'm going to bring you into the family, into my family.

And then later in verse five, according to the good pleasure of his will. That's why. Because it pleased him. That's the only reason why. We'll get to one other reason actually.

As I was thinking of that statement, that's not true. Love is another reason. But The fundamental reason behind election is it pleases God, who is our Maker. That is reason enough. According to the good pleasure of his will.

He determined it because it pleased him. Now look at verse nine. According to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself. Election is in himself. It's his own purposes.

He purposed it in himself. He didn't take counsel from anyone. He didn't need information outside of himself. He purposed it in himself and again, it's part of his good pleasure. Verse 11 could Paul say this more repeatedly and more clearly verse 11 being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

His will, His pleasure, His purpose. Where are we in here? Well, if you're born again, you're elect. That's as close as you get to the picture. You're the object of grace.

You're the object of compassion. That's it. That's your part to play. You get to be the object of compassion. But it's His pleasure.

It's His counsel. It's His will. It's the future that He prescribed, He predestined, He predetermined. If you have trusted in Jesus Christ, this is why you have trusted in Jesus Christ. It's hard to believe.

That's it. That's the explanation. If you have saving faith, that's why you have saving faith. Because it pleased God that you would have saving faith. And he did it according to the counsel of his own will.

He did it for his own pleasure. It was something in him. It was not something in you. Now let's look at chapter 2. Chapter 2 verses 1 through 1-10.

More of the same really. And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others. God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Paul makes it so clear in Ephesians 1 and 2 that we couldn't have played a part because we were dead. Dead. By nature.

Children of wrath. By nature, objects of wrath. So why save some? Because of love, because of mercy, because of his own glory. It was something in him.

It was his love, not something in us. It's inexplicable. In verse eight we find out that faith is not a work. Be careful. It's easy to think of faith as a work.

I must repent and believe. That is true. You must repent and believe. But don't think that's you doing something that earns merits, favor with God. Verse eight couldn't be more clear.

Faith is a gift. If you find yourself believing and trusting in Christ, just know this, you've received a remarkable gift. God did that. We receive the gift of faith and then we work. That's what eight through ten means.

God gives the gift of faith and then we work. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Even the work is from God. Do you get that from Ephesians chapter 2? Even the work should roll up in thanksgiving to God.

That's what we see in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. God deserves the praise for this work of faith and these labors of love and this patience of hope. Now how can Paul and Silvanus and Timothy say, we know your election. Isn't that presumptuous? Did you see the book?

The Lamb's Book of Life? Did you see these names in the book? Nobody's ever shown me the book. How can these three men say, we know your election? Because these Thessalonians received the gospel that was preached as the word of God and they are bearing fruit of repentance.

This is not special revelation being given to Paul and Silvanus and Timothy that says, look, you get a peek at the book of the Lamb's book of life. No, it's because they can see it's the results of the work of the Holy Spirit. There's going to be more on that next week. About how the gospel went forth with power and the Holy Spirit among them. They received the gospel that was preached as the word of God And they are bearing fruit worthy of repentance.

And so Paul and Silvanus and Timothy can say, that only happens when you get a new heart. People don't receive the preaching of the gospel as the word of God, and bear fruit worthy of repentance unless the Holy Spirit comes. It flows from election. They believed and they were changed. Finally, look at what election does.

This is beautiful. It makes us beloved brethren together. It gathers us into a family. It gathers these mighty spiritual men, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. Anybody think you are the equal of them?

I don't. They are not popes. They are brothers. God's They are brothers. God's people don't have popes.

At the most fundamental level we just have brothers and sisters. There is authority and leadership and submission in the church. But it's all temporary and none of it is fundamental. Jesus being the head of the church is fundamental. Everything else is totally transitory.

At its heart, Jesus' church is brothers and sisters. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are going to refer to these new converts 19 times as brothers and sisters. In this one letter. In 2 Thessalonians it will be 9 times. That's because it's two chapters shorter.

It's about the same ratio. Brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, over and over and over again, they're pressing home the truth that in Christ we are brothers and sisters. Leave the Pope to the Catholics. They can have him and all his predecessors and all his successors. It is a stench in the nostrils of God.

That is not the character of the Lord's people. We are beloved. We are brethren. We are beloved by God and we are beloved by each other. Here is the conclusion of the exposition in an attempt to bring it all together.

Three men labor together and they plant a church. They preach their hearts out. Among a lot of opposition there are converts. They plant a church and They look and they see good fruit and they thank God in their prayers for it. They know who to thank for it.

Recognizing that this is the result of God's work in election. They can go and say there's a church in Thessalonica where there never was a church for millennia because of election. Thank you God. One man waters, One man plants, another waters, God brings the increase. That's what verses two through four are acknowledging.

Yes, they went, they planted, they preached their hearts out. And they watered those seeds, but God brought the increase. It was election that gave new hearts that produced fruit. Okay, applications. Three.

Number one, what is the status of thanksgiving and prayer in your life? It's revealed to be fundamental to the Christian life in verse two. What is the status of thanksgiving and prayer in your life? It's revealed to be fundamental to the Christian life in verse 2. What is the status of thanksgiving and prayer in your life?

Whatever the answer is, upgrade it. If you have a lot, upgrade it to more than a lot. If it's a little, it'll be easier to upgrade. Number two. If you're a professing Christian, is your life telling a story of inner realities that have outer manifestations?

If you are a professing Christian, You take the name of Christ on your lips and you say I belong to Christ. Is your life telling this story? A story of inner realities that have outer manifestations. That's a long way to say. Is there any fruit?

Is there any fruit? This is why the New Testament teaches us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Because a lot of times there is no beef. Where is the beef? A lot of times there is words and words and words, a multiplication of words but no substance.

We should be on the lookout for that. When our lives are showing patterns of persistent faltering and weakness and dominating sin, then we have to ask, is there any beef here? Is there any beef in the burger? Is this all bun and lettuce? Number three, if you are not a professing Christian, come.

Be a beloved brother or sister. Come! What would stop you from coming today? If you are not a professing Christian, why wait another day? You say, wait a minute, I might not be elect.

That's none of your business. God is not going to give you a peek at that book. But consider that God has brought you into contact again today with the Gospel. When Peter preached in Acts, he says, God overlooked ignorance in time past, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent. That's your business.

Election is God's business. Who knows what he was thinking before the foundation of the world. But he's brought you under the sound of the preaching of the gospel today that Jesus' blood is sufficient to cleanse sinners, all who come and repent and believe the gospel, and that should give you hope. And if you Find yourself in yourself a willingness to trust in Christ. Know that that is a gift.

Know that that is a gift. Leave God to His business. He is better at it than we are anyway. Our business is to repent and believe. If you find yourself with the ability to repent and believe, you are being given a gift, a precious gift.

Let's pray. God, I have a sense now of how deep the waters of election are and how we've barely even skimmed the surface. But I thank you that at the very least it demonstrates your love that all these things are within yourself, and that you have a great love that has taken people who are unworthy of your compassion, and you've shown it to them anyway, because it pleased you to do so. God, I pray that conviction of sin would fall upon us where we've been thankless and prayerless. You'd help us to make progress, O Lord.

Give us progress. God, may we acknowledge that you are the source of every good thing that comes into our life. May our days be filled with recognizing it and thanking you for these things, even the things that stretch us and press us. God, may we acknowledge our great dependence upon you by coming to you in prayer so many times every day to ask you to do the things that we know we can't do. Pray this in Jesus name, amen.