Now let's open our Bibles together, 1 Thessalonians 2, as we begin to look in verse 13 at our text today, a message entitled, Your Decision, Please. It really is not enough merely to know the facts of the Bible. We must allow what we know to determine how we will choose to live. I suppose that all of us come short in some respect to putting into practice in our lives what we have learned from the Word of God.
It is a terribly dangerous thing to allow that to accumulate and to build up in our lives. For example, the Pharisees knew the intricacies of the Old Testament law. They knew a lot of the Old Testament verbatim, but as was proven when Jesus came, their hearts were far from God. There's a basic principle in the Word of God that says that the greater one's knowledge is, the more strict one's judgment will be. A person's attitude toward the Bible, the Word of God, is decisive.
That attitude determines his destiny. In verse 13 we read, And for this reason we also constantly thank God, that when you received from us the Word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. For your brethren became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea.
For you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved, with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost. You and I are accountable to God for what we do with the truth that we know.
Actually we are better off not to know very much and to apply it, than to know a lot and fail to be changed by it. When you come right down to it, there are only two possible responses that one can have to what the Word of God says to him. One can accept it or one can reject it. It's that simple. In our text today, we find one group who received it, and we find another group who rejected the Word of God.
And if we pay attention, we'll learn some things from these two groups and their responses to the Word. Regarding the reception of the Word, we find the example of the Thessalonians in verses 13 and 14. Really there are three steps to the process of receiving the Word of God in the deepest sense and the apostle points them out to us here. The first one is implied, and it is that they heard the Word. The Paul has said that outright earlier.
But the first step in receiving the Word of God is in fact to hear it. For unless one can hear it, he cannot receive it. That is elementary. It is simplistic, but it's true. No one can be right with God until first he hears what God has to say to him in the Word. The Word of God tells us the only way that one can have a relationship with God. By the way, that's why we emphasize missions in our church.
That's why we're talking about the 2.7 billion people yet who have never even heard the Word of God. Because they cannot have a relationship with the only living and true God until first they hear. And so we are involved in the great commission of sending those who will proclaim the Word of God that they might hear. That's step number one. Step number two is receiving the Word. The apostle speaks of this directly.
He says that when you received from us the Word of God's message, this word received here means literally to receive alongside of one. The idea is they took it to heart. They brought it into their minds. It did more than just go in this ear and wind its way around and come out this ear. It stopped in between the two ears. The word received here means that they intellectually accepted the message. So thus they accepted it but not in a saving sense.
What they did was necessary, but it was not enough to make them Christians. It was a limited reception of the Word of God. Just like many people who come to church and they go to the service and they hear the Word of God and they think about it, it goes into their minds and that's as far as it goes. It's necessary for it to go to the mind, but it must go further than that. The apostle gives us that third step. He says you accepted it for what it really is, the Word of God.
This is a different word than the word received. The word accept in verse 13 means to welcome. It means more than just to bring it alongside of you. It means to embrace it. It means actually to appropriate the Word of God, to make it one's own. You fishermen can appreciate the fact that you prepared the lure well.
You try to decide just what the fish are biting on at this particular season and with the weather out just like it is and the sunlight and so on and you try to figure out what will entice the fish and you throw that lure out there. So now we go underwater and we see that lure hit and it comes down beside our friend fish here. We'll call him Fred. And so Fred swims around the lure and it seems very interesting to him. He thinks about it. If a fish has got a brain. He looks at that lure.
He decides that it does in fact look enticing and it might taste good. And so he takes the fatal step and he begins to eat it. And when he takes it in, it's got him. It's that third step of taking it in that is in view when the apostle says you accepted the Word of God. Now why did they accept it? Well because of the outlook they had. They realized that this was not just a message that came from men. That in fact it was the Word of God Himself. They realized that.
It did not originate with Paul and with these friends of his that came to their city. But it originated with God. That outlook caused them to do more than just think about it. They accepted it. And the outworking of this is that it began to perform its work in them. Interesting idea. The word perform its work here is actually one verb in the original language. It's where we get our word energy. Energeo is the word. And it means to powerfully and productively operate.
It's like turning the switch on a dynamo. It begins to work. What happened? Well they believed. That's the same thing as appropriating. They believed the Word of God and so the Word of God then began to energize them. It began to function within their lives. In and of itself it began to operate and powerfully produce fruit in their lives. That fruit was that they became imitators. Now Paul has used that word before, imitate.
But he again points to the fact that they were imitators, this time of some other believers whom they had never met. The churches back in Palestine, in that area called Judea, he says you have become imitators of them though you've never met them. You've copied their example of faithfully suffering for your Savior. Thank God for churches like those in Judea who set an example. I thank God for the churches today that set examples for us.
Churches that are oriented toward the mission that God has given them. Churches that are setting a pace that cause all of us to say, wow, we want to do something like that. I hope that God will also make us that kind of a church, an example church that others will want to imitate. Oh, these Thessalonians were turned on by the Word of God. Why? Because they received it. But it's possible for people to do something else than receive the Word of God. It's possible to reject the Word of God.
The apostle points to a group that they knew that did not accept the Word but rejected it and that is their fellow countrymen. He says you endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own fellow citizens in Thessalonica. Even as they, those believers down in Judea did, at the hands of their fellow countrymen, the Jews. So we have the rejection of the Word of God in verses 15 and 16. Now Paul at this point begins an outburst.
One commentator says that the outburst that follows in these two verses is without any parallel in any of Paul's writings. It's as though something has been welling up inside of him and what he has just said about suffering pricks that emotion. And it bursts out of him as he begins to write regarding the Jews. He points first to the privilege which they enjoyed. The Jews were in fact highly privileged. They had more revelation from God than any other people at that time.
In order of sequence, the apostle mentions these, but in order of sequence it's the Old Testament prophets who came to them. And then the Lord Jesus himself, the Son of God, came to them. The fullness of all that God is is revealed in Christ. He came to the Jewish people, not to the Gentiles. Though his coming brought blessing to all people, he came to the Jews. And then thirdly, the apostles began at Jerusalem, just like the Lord told them to.
First at Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. And in Acts you see them fulfilling that. And he says that these Jewish people had tremendous privileges in that they had the Old Testament writings and the prophets who revealed God to them. They had the law of Moses. They had the Lord Jesus Christ himself who came and was born as one of them among them to reveal God.
And then they had the apostles of the church who began right there in the capital city of Jerusalem the privileges that they enjoyed. But it's not enough merely to have privilege. It is not enough just to have revelation declared. One has to respond to it rightly, and that's what the apostle talks about. And he begins a pronouncement upon these Jewish people. He charges them with three things. The first thing he charges them with is that they spurned their privileges.
He says they killed the Old Testament prophets, not all of them, but many of them actually were martyred by the Jewish people. And as a whole, as a nation, as a group, with some individual exceptions, but as a whole, they turned away from the Old Testament prophets. When Jesus came, there were some who followed him. But as a whole, as a nation, as a group, they killed him. They put him on the cross. And then they had the apostles who proclaimed the word of God to them.
What did they do with that privilege? They drove them out of the country, a very strong term that means actually to drive them out as though they were driving a pack of cattle or wolves. And so the Jewish people spurned the privileges that God gave to them by persecuting the prophets, killing the Lord Jesus, and driving out the apostles. They hounded them and harassed them until they scattered and left. He charges them secondly with the fact that they please not God.
Actually what he says here is they are highly displeasing to God. A very strong term to a proud race that claimed that of all the peoples of the world, they were accepted by God and pleased him. And the apostle Paul declares, having been one of them, having been one of their leaders, he says they are highly displeasing to God because of their pride, their self-sufficiency, and their rejection of the word. And thirdly, he says they are contrary to all men. Now what does he mean by that?
Well he explains it. In verse 16 he says that not only do they themselves not believe, but they have tried to keep us from ministering the word to the Gentiles. Did that happen? Oh yes, go back and read even what happened in the city of Thessalonica when Paul was there. They tried to keep the apostles from speaking even to the Gentiles. So they are contrary to all men. Not only will they themselves refuse to believe, but they refuse to allow others to hear that they might believe.
I have known some parents that way who themselves rejected the word of God and refused to allow their children to continue to go to Sunday school or to the youth group. They refused, lest their children also might hear and receive the word of God. The Lutheran commentator Linsky points out, the worst feature of unbelief is not its own damnation, but its effort to frustrate the salvation of others. This is quite a charge which the apostle brings against the Jewish people.
And you see how it applies to the fellow citizens there in that region. For the city of Thessalonica had the word of God proclaimed to it, one of the few cities where the apostle preached actually himself in that time. What privilege they had, but they spurned it. Not only that, they drove out the apostle Paul. They began to persecute the believers who were there. So you understand why Paul compares what happened to the Thessalonians to what happened to the churches down in Judea.
This is a hot denunciation, I tell you, of the people whom Paul dearly loved. Let no one accuse the apostle Paul of being anti-Semitic. For in the book of Romans he said that if it were possible, he would be willing to go to hell if only the Jewish people might come to faith in their Christ. That is not an anti-Semite speaking. But what he is saying is true, that this highly privileged people rejected the word of God. We live in a country not a lot unlike that today.
We live in a nation that has had privilege beyond any other nation in the history of the world. The advantages, the blessings, the opportunities which the United States and its citizens have had are unparalleled in history. Unless it be the Jewish people, perhaps there is a parallel there. People in our country can turn on the radio, they can turn on the television, they can pick up a book, they can go to thousands of churches and hear the word of God. But what has our country as a whole done?
It has rejected the word of God. Marvelous exceptions to that. Even some large exceptions to that. There are places, there are cities where there is a large minority of believers. And I think we happen to live in one of those areas, Minneapolis-St. Paul. There are a lot of believers here, far more than the average city across America. But as a whole, our nation has done the same thing which happened in Thessalonica, the same thing that happened in Judea of old. It has rejected the privileges.
It has rejected the revelation of God. The apostle closes by pointing to the punishment which they then encountered. Because you see, one cannot reject God and His Word with impunity. To reject the Word of God brings judgment. The apostle points to the wrath of God which he describes as accumulating and assured. He says they are filling up the measure of their sins. What does that mean?
Well, the picture is a cup that has wine dripping into it until finally it comes to the brim and there is that last drop that falls and it causes the cup to overflow. And he says, so it was with the Jewish people. And so it would be with the Thessalonians. And I tell you so, but by the grace of God will it be with our country. God is exceedingly patient and God's justice grinds slowly, but grind it does. And the sins keep dripping into the cup until finally the cup is filled and overflows.
Paul's words says Dr. Hebert, imply that there is a certain measure of wickedness which God will allow a nation, a group or an individual to complete before His judgment falls on them. There are those who take the patience of God for granted and interpret it to mean that God will never punish, that God will not judge, but God always judges sin. At last it will come and the apostle closes our text by saying wrath has come upon them to the utmost. At last God's judgment arrives.
The danger of rejecting the word of God is that every time one does that it brings a judicial hardness to the heart. When one willfully says no to God, it brings a greater blindness to his eyes until finally there is a point of no return when a person cannot be saved because he will not be saved. Now there are some who mistakenly think that they can take middle ground in this thing.
They say, oh wait a minute now, I may not have really received God's word, but I haven't rejected it, I'm sort of in the middle somewhere. But the Bible clearly says that there is no middle ground, that to neglect the word of God is the same thing as rejecting the word of God. It's either on or off, it's light or dark, we either receive the word of God or we reject the word of God. The fact is that every time we hear the voice of God we inevitably respond to God one way or the other.
Even if we think we've made no decision, by that indecision we have chosen against the word of God. We are responsible and accountable to God for what we know from the word. I may be speaking to someone today who knows how to become a Christian. You have heard over and over again what it means to become a genuine Christian. It doesn't come by dedication as we did with these babies this morning, it doesn't come by baptism, it doesn't come by confirmation, it does not come by church membership.
Salvation comes alone by receiving Jesus Christ and the promise of God as an act of faith. You know that, but you've not done it. Your judgment to this point is greater than that heathen person who has never yet heard the word of God. The condemnation that awaits your soul in hell is far greater than the one who has never yet had the privilege of hearing the name of Jesus Christ.
Because having heard, you have to this point refused to receive, and not to receive is to reject and to place oneself under the wrath of God. He who believes on the Son has everlasting life, but he who does not obey the Son of God does not have life, and the wrath of God abides on him, says the word. The story is told of an event that happened in a frontier town years ago. A horse with a wagon, a hitch to it bolted away from its owner, and there was a little child there in that wagon.
Seeing that a child was in danger, there was a man who risked his life by running out into that dusty street and standing and grabbing the horse as it came by so that he might stop it. He saved the life of that child. The child who was rescued grew up to become a criminal, a law breaker, and having committed a terrible crime, he stood one day before a judge to be sentenced.
As he looked at the judge, a smile came across his face as he recognized that this judge was the very man who years before this had saved his life on that dusty street. And so he pled for mercy on the basis of that experience years ago, but the judge spoke from the bench solemn words. When he said, young man, then I was your savior. Today I am your judge, and I must sentence you to be hanged. Jesus Christ is this day offering himself to you as savior.
The word of God reveals what he has done on your behalf and the promise of God that if you believe on Christ, you will be saved. That you need not work and try and perform. All you have to do is release your self-righteousness, acknowledge your sins, and appropriate him. To this point, you have heard and you have received in the sense that you've brought this truth alongside of you, but will you now appropriate it for yourself? Will you believe and be saved? Let's bow together.
Sing with me this chorus. Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, And that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. Our heads are bowed. Your decision, please. What will your response be today to the word of God? Will you receive it and make it your own, or will you dare to reject it and go your way? Eternity, my friend, hangs in the balance. Your attitude toward the word of God determines the destiny of your soul.
Right where you're seated, will you open your heart to Christ? Will you receive him right now as your own Savior and Lord? Tell him so. Say Jesus, come into my heart. I believe on you as my only hope of salvation. I trust in you. I come to you and bow my knee and trust you alone to save me. Many of us here have done that, but there may be other areas of the word of God where we have struggled and rejected.
Where we have not proclaimed Jesus to be the Lord of our lives, and we have heard the word of God, we know what it says, but we have not yet acted upon it. We would have been better off not to know, but we do. And now that we know, we're responsible. Whatever area where the Holy Spirit may be putting the spotlight, may we deal honestly with that area this morning, yielding it to him.
Let's stand together, please, with our heads bowed and sing one more chorus before we go, one which I hope reflects the attitude of all of our hearts. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. Amen.