I would like to direct your attention this morning to the words which we find in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 and the verse 5. Paul's first epistle to the Thessalonians chapter 3 and the fifth verse. The Apostle Paul says, For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means attempt to have tempted you. and our labour be in vain. And of course, having sent to know their faith, the apostle was encouraged and assured when he had good tidings that returned to him from Timotheus, who had been sent to them. And he comes back, as we read in verse six, with good tidings of their faith and charity, and that they had good remembrance of us always. desiring greatly to see us as we also to see you. Here was a people who had been affected by the Apostle's ministry, who had been much blessed by it in his being amongst them. And indeed, now we find that they have come into great difficulties in his absence. He and they have both come under various diverse afflictions, all manner of troubles have befallen them in this world. Troubles principally by persecution. The apostle speaks in chapter two how that the churches of God in Judea had suffered of the Jews and how that these in Thessalonica had suffered of their own countrymen in the same manner and the people of God had been much afflicted by those who would oppose the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those who were offended at it and for those to whom the gospel was something which was so unpleasant, so untasteful, something which spoke to them of their own sinfulness, their desperate need of a savior, and therefore, which was unpalatable to them, for they did not like, as no man naturally likes, to be told of his sinfulness, to be told that he is deserving of judgment, as every man is in the world. We find in this tribulation, then, The apostle has some concerns that come to his mind. What if these believers, young believers perhaps, a new church that has just recently been begun, and so soon they are plunged into the fire of persecution? So quickly, all manner of opposition has been raised against them. What is to become of them? What will happen? How will they stand against this? Will they fall? Will it be that they will fall away so soon that those who had come so soon might yet so quickly have fallen away in the faith and might cease to follow after Jesus Christ for the trouble? We know that it is a sad testimony of Scripture, sad testimony perhaps even of those who we know in our own experience that so often there are those who make a good profession. and yet to then later come to fall away. When troubles arise, the seed that is sown, that has begun to spring up, it is choked, or it dies out, or some evil befalls that, that it should not grow up to maturity. There are so many troubles and trials that a Christian may face, that if he does not have a true and a real faith and his profession will not last. It will just be something which is an outward form for a little while. Something which is spoken about for a little while. Something which he talks about perhaps in certain company. But then we find him. There are certain who do not even know that he is a Christian. Perhaps his colleagues at work haven't even realized that this man goes to church on the Sabbath day. Perhaps he is one who has not made anything of it. because of persecution. And such a man, it would not be a surprise to find him falling away. Find him falling away from church attendance, from reading of the scriptures, from his personal devotions, and from the Lord himself, and thereby coming, as it were, to ruin. So near, and yet so far, and ruined, as it were, by troubles. These troubles and trials, these afflictions, which came to the church, were, if you like, the first test of their faith, to see whether it were real or not, to see whether they had the principle of the matter in them, or whether it was just a mere outward profession. The apostle is sure of these, brethren, but he would know for certain, and so he sends Timotheus to them. When he could not any longer forbear, sends Timotheus, His brother, a trusted labourer and a dear son of his in the faith, sends him to find out their faith, fearing for them lest they had come to harm. Well, the question is raised for us. What would it be if there was made an inquiry into your faith this morning? What would be the result of such an inquiry? Such a trial, such an affliction. What would be the result of it? Nay, we need not wait for trial or affliction to see something of the metal of your faith. But consider it in your own soul this morning. How stands it you and God? How stands it betwixt the two? One who had, and by nature is, the offended party, the almighty God, and you? as the sinner before him, the one who has been so great an offender against this holy God? How is it with your soul this morning? How is it to be found? If an inquiry is made into your faith, wherein will it be lying? What is your faith in this morning? In what have you got all your hope and your confidence? It is very possible to say that you believe in God, Very possible to say that you believe in Jesus Christ, and yet, for there to be nothing in your heart of this, for there to be nothing in your soul to testify to this profession, as it were, and to bear the witness of it, would it not be well to be established with such faith? Even if perhaps you are undergoing no particular affliction or trial at the present, would it not be well that you may be ready to stand at such a time? Affliction, you may avoid it for the most part in this life, although scarcely so. Troubles come upon every man in this world, though some seem to have an easier ride than others. But there will be a great affliction at the last. There will be a great trial at the last. Because then this very matter will be brought up, not the question of your profession so much as the question of your faith. Whether you have faith in Jesus Christ or not, whether it is in your heart or whether it is just something which passes between your lips in conversation, this will be brought up. And where will it be brought up? It will be brought up before the throne of God himself. It will be brought up before the judgment bar. The judge will be standing before you to make his judgment upon this very point. If it be so, does it not do every man and woman well if he prepare to meet his God now? Then it shall be too late. You can put it off for as long as you like. You can determine that he will wait a while and see how it goes with you, see what happens in life. And this will not avail you anything. When the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night, without warning and unexpectedly, when you are summoned all unexpected before the bar of judgment, what will be then? Those who have not prepared. Those who are not ready for this. They will be standing there. perhaps in having been all their lives in great arrogance against God, having gone about with pomp and display, perhaps with great status and standing in this world, perhaps with everything that this world could offer them, perhaps being honorable persons in this world, respectable. They might even have been respectable Christians in the church. And what will we find them doing? If they have not faith, they will be standing there and they will be calling upon the rocks and the mountains to cover them. to fall on them, to hide them from the face of the Lamb. The day of his wrath cometh, and who shall stand? None, but those who are covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who are sheltered in him, and no others. Three things observed this morning. The apostles sent to know their faith. I would that you would inquire into yourselves this morning to know whether you have faith. Firstly, I propose that we consider for a moment what proper faith is. It is true, in principle, that a man may have faith in something. A man may have faith in God and yet not be saved. But what is faith? Faith, in the most simple sense of the word, is to count something, to reckon something, to be credible, and therefore to hold it and to esteem it as something which is true. That is what faith is principally. Now, we can believe that there is a God. Will that save a man? No. Believing that there is a God never saved a single man because the devils believe that much and they tremble for it. I would to God that more men would believe that there was a God and tremble. And yet for man, there is something more. There is more hope for him than for the devils which are doomed. But it is not merely to believe in God. It is not merely to believe that the scriptures are true. Not merely enough to believe that they are a true historical record. Not merely enough to believe that every word of them is true from cover to cover. Not merely enough to believe in all the events which took place during the life of Christ. Not merely enough to believe that Christ was crucified and that he rose again the third day. This is not enough. This will never save a man such a historical faith as this. Just merely believing that events happened This is not what we're talking about. This is not a faith which will get any man through affliction. This is not a faith that will be of any help to any man when he stands in judgment at the last. It will do him no good at all just to believe this. Of course we believe all these things as Christian people. But it is not the heart of our faith. The faith which is ours, the faith which gives to us life, is the faith of Jesus Christ, as it is described in the Scriptures. Which is to say, a firm belief and faith that Jesus Christ, when he died upon the cross, died for our sins, and thereby took them And by this means, taking them on himself and bearing them on the cross caused us to be right with God and by Jesus Christ acceptable to him. This is the fundament of faith. This is a very foundation and the basis of what we hold to. This is what will get a man through. This is what will have a man to have hope at the last. because he believes in Jesus Christ. He believes that the work of Jesus Christ is for him, and by taking possession of it, as it were, by taking hold upon it, by faith, he grasps it, and he draws it near to himself, and he clings onto it by the grace of God. He cannot do it of himself, of course. If we were to ponder for a moment on the origin of this faith, All such faith, which is not of this, is principally so much faith as we can conjure up ourselves, so to speak. We might have faith in something which is merely a faith which we have derived. We have no external source of it. We have no external reason for it, perhaps. But it is merely a faith of our own imagination. But this is a faith which is given. a faith not of our own imagination, but a faith which is divine, a faith which is from on high, a faith which is holy, which is saving. This is given to a man that he may believe. And if any man lacks faith, he must plead with the Lord that he might have it, that it might be given to him, that he might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be of the Lord, else it is not saving at all, The Lord is the disposer of all these things. He is the one that gives it away. It is beyond man to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet he must. It is his responsibility. It is his duty to seek the Lord that he might. And to seek the Lord is the only way that he may. To plead with him, to pray to him, and to be earnest with him that he would grant to him grace that he might believe. It must be, then, a special kind of faith, no ordinary kind of faith which a man must have. And therefore, since it is a special kind of faith, since it is a divine faith, since it is not no historical faith, but a heartfelt faith which is personal and applied to a man's own soul, then it will change him. It will not leave him to go on as he always has been. It will not cause him just to continue in this world as he has always been living. But it will mean that he is a changed man, changed in every respect, changed in every part of his life. There will be no part of his life which is now unaffected by it. He has surrendered to Jesus Christ. King Jesus is now upon the throne of his heart, and therefore he looks to him for all things. He is but a servant now. He has been, we might say, humbled. to be a servant, and yet exalted to be the servant of the Most High God. In this sense, the man who has come to believe in Jesus Christ, he is no longer under his own rule, but he is under the rule of his sovereign. And now, being before the Almighty God, settling before him in the way, he looks to him in every respect. looks to him in all his life, that he may know his appropriate duty, that he may know the way that he ought to go forth, and in order that he may be settled in the way, and walk in the right way, all the way to glory, which is his ultimate destination at the last. This is the believer in Jesus Christ, not just a man with an outward profession, not just a man that says that he believes, but a man who is changed altogether. A man who has had his life turned about, turned upside down, if you like, who now looks at the world through a different lens. He has, as it were, different glasses on, which cause him to see all things differently. A man of this world, a man without faith, might look upon all the events of the world. He might look at all the world State and all the troubles and afflictions and trials that are going on. All the wars and the famines and the disasters. The potential troubles which could arise. And he might begin to despair. He might begin to say, what hope is there? And he might begin to pace up and down restlessly. He might be unable to get any kind of rest because he has such great fear. The whole world might be turned upside down. All manner of terrible things might happen. He may begin to despair of the very world ending. And he can get no rest. The believer has no cause to be in a state like that. The believer has no reason to pace up and down so restlessly. He has access before the courts of him who reigns in the heavens. It may seem that everything in the world is out of control. May seem to the human eye, to a human, ungodly perspective, unbelieving perspective. It may seem to him that the world is just one complete and utter mess. Everything's going to bits. That all the rulers of the world have no idea what they are doing and seem that the only result of everything is going to be the destruction of everything. Society will collapse. The world will all but come to an end. The world will become uninhabitable and so forth. Yet a man with faith in God may look at all these potentials and may say, yet, yet, even if the find should fail, even if there should be a shortage of all comforts of this world, even if everything should fail in this world, yet, Yet I have such a hope, such a glorious hope, which I hold so dear to me. Yet I have everything, even though I have nothing of this world's goods, because I have Christ. And so he stands with the resolve of Job, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. though he do the very worst he can, even though the Lord himself were to permit for the whole world to go into chaos and anarchy. Yet I have a hope, for my God is on the throne. None can approach to him, none can stand against him, none can change him, none can alter his decree, and therefore so long as I am right with him, so long as I have faith in him, so long as he keeps me, so long as I am one of his elect children, all shall be well with me. All shall be well at the last, and even for the present I may say all is well, because my soul is right with God, and having such faith from him, having such a holy confidence in God through Jesus Christ, then I may go forth against the world, I may go forth, come what may, and it shall be well with me. This is all my desire, all my hope and all my confidence, Jesus Christ and him crucified. For this we observe for the first matter, the nature of this faith, a faith in Jesus Christ, which carries a man through and which changes a man in every respect. Secondly, observe this, there is opposition to this faith. He said to know their faith lest by some means the tempter have tempted you and our labor be in vain. One who would believe in God will always have enemies. In this world there may be many, even for a man who is seeking after God and yet has not faith. A man who has mere interest in the things of God, there may be many hindrances to him. Many things will get in his way, many stumbling blocks. Perhaps he will experience persecution just merely because he is interested. I have known sometimes when have been handing out tracts in the street. There have been some who have come, perhaps there is a party of two or three that have come by, and in passing by perhaps one of them has shown an interest in taking a tract, and perhaps taken a tract. But oh, sometimes, he is astonishing what mockery that person receives from their friends as they walk on down the street, just a mere expressing an interest. And Satan will have a hindrance in the way. He will use some man and some person and some thing to get in the way to try to prevent them from even hearing the word of the Lord or reading it as it is written. In every respect, in every part of the Christian life, even perhaps from the first signs of life, to death itself. There will be trouble. There will be opposition. There will be affliction. There will be those things which happen to us, those troubles which befall us, which will seek to act as a wedge to drive between us and our God. Perhaps in difficulties, when we are being tried of the Lord, some sad providence has befallen us. It may be that we are given cause to question God, to doubt Him, To ask why, why must these things be so? Why must this have happened to me? Why must I go through this trouble? Why must I experience this time of life which is so hard for me? Yes, is it not for a purpose? Is it not by the will of the gracious God that you might be strengthened and equipped Is it not, ultimately, that you should be driven closer to Christ, made less dependent upon earthly things, earthly resources, the counsel of the world, and even those in the world, that we might depend more fully, more wholly, upon the Savior? that we might have our eyes turned away from all the things of the world, that we might look to Jesus Christ alone. Is not this a grand and great purpose in every trial and trouble of life that we might draw closer to Christ? These things, they act as it were in one of two ways. They either end up driving a wedge between us and God and showing our faith to be weak or non-existent in some cases. And so persecution, when it comes with all its fire, tries and purifies the church for those who have not the true faith cannot endure it. But at the same time, for one who has this real faith, troubles and trials, though they may be devised of Satan himself, they find no way through. Because a Christian, when he stands in Christ, he may have caused doubt and fear and no question about it. Every believer must do this from time to time because it is his nature that is in him. He should not do it, but he does it. But ultimately, the trial, if it be met with Christ, it will do him good. It will drive him closer to Christ, that very thing which was devised by Satan's own hands, which were crafted so carefully against you. That trial, still, if it is met with Christ, it will prove rather to defeat Satan, not only to defeat Satan, but for your strengthening against him. That very thing which he devised that you might be separated from your God, but drives you closer to him. and thereby makes every man as the stronger. And so we find here to be the case. These who are tried because their faith is true. The tempter came to tempt them. And so Satan does continually. And betimes the Christian does fall into this temptation. And he falls under Satan's snares to doubt God, to question providence, to doubt the goodness of God and his kindness to his people, to doubt his care and so forth. So the tempter is continually coming to us with these things. Constantly trying to take us away from our God. Constantly trying to deceive us, to lead us astray. All his temptations, what are they? Temptations of great things. Temptations of happiness perhaps. Temptations of things which we might enjoy, that might give us great pleasure. Temptations of hope. And yet, Any man who has taken Satan's temptation knows very well how empty they are, knows how very well Satan is entirely incapable of delivering on any of his promises. He promises greatly. He delivers nothing. All he delivers is greater misery and woe, greater condemnation and damnation to the soul if it continue in his way. Oh, for the grace of God, let us give thanks for Jesus Christ because He promises much and delivers more. He delivers to us, grants to his people, more than heart can tell. So often in a distressing providence, perhaps when perplexed, perhaps when we know not the way, we think that we perhaps have some kind of plan for going forwards. We have some idea of where we ought to go, where we want to go or where we should go. And yet so many times the Lord crosses our way, crosses our path, prevents us from walking it, and says this is the better way. And so it will prove to be at the last. And so it often proves even in this life that the way of the Lord's providing is far better for us than the way of our own making. But thirdly, observe, and briefly, time is almost gone. This is a faith which bears fruit When Timotheus, and here we trespass into verse six, when Timotheus came from you unto us and brought us good tidings, what good tidings could he bring? He brought good tidings of their faith and charity, that he have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us and we also to see you. He brings good tidings of their faith, who have spoken of at length, brings good tidings of their love, brings good tidings of their steadfast continuance in what the Apostles taught, standing on and going on in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, as we find it in the book of the Acts, described. This, my friends, is the fruit of faith. This is what true faith brings. It brings love. What kind of love? Love which is divine in its origin. Love which begins with God and ends with God. A love which comes first of all from God to the soul. And thereby, by that means, the soul is able, by some little weak effort, to show some kind of love towards God. And then of course, by this means, having been loved of God and therefore loving God and being enabled to begin to realise something of the purpose of the first table of the commandments, also thereby to be able to love our neighbours as in the second half of the table. So, It bears this kind of fruit, this kind of love one toward another, love especially amongst the brethren, but to all men, concern for their souls, concern for the lost estates of those who know not Christ, but principally love towards God. Continuance, having this good remembrance of the apostle always, a remembrance of all that he taught, a remembrance of the example that he set to them, a remembrance of his behaviour towards them. And so we have it, and we ought to do well to remember all the words of the scriptures, how they instruct us, how we ought to live in a godly manner, with reverent and godly fear before the Lord, and so forth. Going on, desiring also the fellowship of the brethren, and enjoying this also, in fellowship with one another, with those who love the Lord in their hearts, and so going on in this world. This is the fruit of faith. Obedience to the Lord, love to the Lord, and service to his great name. This always accompanies faith. These things are never marks, as it were, on their own. These things are never saving on their own, but they are the fruits, the things which naturally flow forth from the faith which is of Jesus Christ. Well, may the Lord grant that in the inquisition in our souls this morning, it may be found that we do indeed have such a true faith as this, that we have such a faith which will carry us through all troubles in our hearts, And may the Lord grant, indeed, that our faith may be increased, that it may grow, that we may be strong in the Lord. May the Lord bless these things to our souls then this morning. For Christ's sake. Amen.