We're turning to 1 Thessalonians and the chapter 3 this evening. Again, welcome in the Savior's name. 1 Thessalonians and the chapter number 3. And we'll read the chapter together, please. 1 Thessalonians and the chapter 3. The Word of God says, Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone. and sent Timotheus, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith, that no man should be moved by these afflictions. For yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto." There's something that really does away with the health and wealth gospel. Here we have the thought of afflictions, and we are told here that we are appointed to such. We must not, therefore, be surprised when afflictions come across our pathway. God appoints them. Is that a blessing? No, God appoints them. These do not happen by mere chance or by bad fortune, as the world would say. but that our afflictions are appointed by God, measured out by him, measured in his balances, as to the weight of them, as to the duration of them. Our afflictions are ordained by God. For verily, he says, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass, and ye know. For this cause, when we could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter, having tempted you, and our labour be in vain. But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, brought us good tidings of your faith and charity and you have good remembrance of us always desiring greatly to see us as we also to see you therefore brethren we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith for now we live if you stand fast in the lord What thanks can we render to God again for you, for the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God? Night and day praying exceedingly, that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. Now God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you, and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love, one toward another and toward all men, even as we do toward you. To the end, he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. Amen and we end our reading at the verse number 13. It would be during Paul's second missionary journey that the Apostle came to the bustling city of Thessalonica. In Acts 17 verse 1 we read when they passed through Amphibious and Apollia they came to Thessalonica where was a synagogue of the Jews, and Paul, as his manner was, we're told, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. To the people gathered that day in the synagogue, Paul affirmed that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the Messiah, the Christ of God. Now that didn't go down well in the Jewish synagogue so much so that they set the city in uproar which resulted in Paul having to flee from the city under the cover of night and made his way to the city of Berea. In spite of much opposition, God worked in the city of Thessalonica. It really led to the establishment of a city or church within that city, a city that was given wholly over to sin and to idolatry. Because that's what happens when the gospel comes with power and with the Holy Ghost attending the preaching of the word. Souls are saved, churches are established, growth is experienced. And though for days like that, even in our generation. Paul's visit to the city of Thessalonica was very brief, but good seed was sown. The seed of God's word, a harvest was reaped. and an assembly of believers was raised up to the glory of God in the most unlikeliest of places. As with many of Paul's letters, he begins by addressing and reassuring the recipients of those letters, of his continual prayers for them. He does that in a number of his letters and his epistles. 1 Thessalonians is no different. For if you want to turn back to the chapter 1 and put your eye down there to the verse number 2, we read, We give thanks to God always for you, making mention of you in our prayers, membering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and in the sight of God our Father. When I read those words, And I thought of those three things that Paul remembered concerning these saints here in this particular city, their faith, their love, and their hope. I was reminded of the words that we read there in 1 Corinthians 13, and now abideth faith, hope, charity. these three but the greatest of these is charity and paul mentions these three christian graces these christian virtues in the life of these individuals he speaks of their work of faith there's faith their labor of love there's charity and their patience of hope there is hope you see whenever a person is converted These three Christian graces, this, what we would call a triad of supreme Christian virtues, are always found in the life of the child of God to some degree. There's faith, saving faith. There's hope. Aye, and there's charity. There is love. Now what does Paul pray then for these people here in the city of Thessalonica? Well we read what he prays for in this chapter number 3 that we read together. Let's read again verse 10. Night and day he said, praying exceedingly, that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. Now God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you in the Lord, make you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all men even as we do toward you. Now before looking at what Paul prays for specifically, I want to say a few things about to whom Paul prays to. In the verse number 11, Paul declares, Now God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you. This is to whom Paul is praying to you. And Paul jointly we find here addresses God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He calls God Father, he calls Jesus Christ Lord. And by using those specific terms, Paul puts both the Father and the Son on an equal level. We would say on the same footing as each another. In other words, he declares that both Christ and the Father are divine. They are those who can claim lawfully deity. Jesus Christ is God. Not all believe that. As I've often said, the Jehovah Witnesses believe that Christ was a created angel. But here's a passage of God's word that you can take the Jehovah Witness to. Because here we find the bringing together of these two persons within the Godhead, showing to us that the Father and Jesus Christ are both God. I want you to notice the singular that is used here in the verse. Now God himself, and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way on to you. The verse in English should read like this, now God themselves, our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way on to you, but that isn't what is used. Rather the verse speaks of the singular. Now God himself singular and our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. May he direct our way on to you. You see there is a unity that exists within the Godhead between the Father and between the Son. Jesus Christ spoke of that unity when he spoke there in John 10 verse 30. He said I and my Father are one. And those who heard him say that took up stones to stone him, because they knew that he was claiming equality with the Father. You see, there is an equality within the Godhead. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equally God. They are one God, yet three distinct persons within the Godhead, co-equal, co-eternal, co-substantial with each another. And thereby, we believe in the Trinity of the sacred persons within the Godhead. The scriptures teach that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. And so Paul places Christ and the Father here on an equal footing. He's addressing God here in a prayer. There are three matters that Paul specifically prays for as he speaks and prays for these saints of God in this city. And brethren and sisters, this is what we should pray for. We're not just looking at this for the sake of simply looking at the prayers of the apostle Paul, but we really take these as a template to our praying. How should we pray for those within the church of Jesus Christ? How should we pray for our fellow brothers and sisters in the faith? How should we pray when we get down to prayer? What should we pray for? This is why we're considering these particular prayers. And so Paul prays about three matters. Firstly, he prays about the matter of fellowship, the matter fellowship. Paul says here in verse 10 that he prayed day and night. This was a prayer that was continually upon his lips. This was a burden upon the Apostle Paul's heart. You see a burden cannot be got away from. Whenever we pray at times we say a prayer And then that's the only time we pray about a specific matter. But whenever God burdens the heart, then it seems to be that we are repeatedly praying such a prayer. And this is what Paul repeatedly prays on a daily basis, night and day, he prays that he might see their face. He says in verse 10, night and day, praying exceedingly. that we might see your face. He then states in the verse 11, Paul wanted to see the face. of these people again. He wanted to direct God. He wanted God to direct, or the word is to make straight the way, so that he might enjoy, once again, the fellowship of the saints of God in the city of Thessalonica. Isn't that an amazing thought? To think that there was the apostle Paul, and he loved the people of God so much in that particular city that he wanted to meet them again. No, I thought about that and I thought it is a healthy sign when a minister, when a pastor wants to meet and wants to have fellowship with his congregation. But on the other hand, it is an unhealthy sign when a pastor, when a minister avoids his people. That's an unhealthy sign, and that happens at times. Ministers hibernate sometimes in their studies, and they keep themselves apart from their congregation. I know that these days are most difficult days with regard to pastoring, and you would know that to be the case. And as I've said on many occasions, I'm just at the other end of the phone. I don't hang up on anyone, I assure you of that, and I try and do my best with regard to pastoring. But it is a poor sign when a pastor does not want to be with his congregation. Can I say that the minister, the minister needs as much the encouragement of his congregation as his congregation needs his encouragement. either from the pulpit or by personal pastoral care. I need as much your encouragement. And one way to encourage the minister is just simply being in your place. Just simply being there. Because it relieves me of the burden of questioning, where are they? And are they okay? And are they well? And are they sick? Has death come? All of these things go on in my mind every time that I come to the pulpit and I look down and I wonder, well, where's that person tonight? And why are they not out this evening? And I love meeting with the people of God and finding your encouragement by simply being here. You're here to hear God's word. What an encouragement that is in these days. And so Paul, he wants to meet these people. However, a reunion with them was not possible. And 1 Thessalonians 2 gives us the reason why it wasn't possible. If you look at the verse 17 and 18 of chapter 2 of this epistle, But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, Though his heart was still there, but his bodily presence. In memory, he's escaped to the city of Berea and then he's moved elsewhere. Endeavoring the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Oh, feel the love in the pastor's heart for his congregation. These people that he had only met for a few days, three, We read here, we read in the book of Acts, three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them, and stayed with them for that period of time, and yet, so had God knitted the heart of the pastor and the congregation together, that he wanted to see their face with great desire. He said, wherefore we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, but, and here he gives the reason, but Satan hindered us. Satan hindered us. is not a great way to describe our adversary. He's the hinderer. He's the hinderer. He's the hinderer of God's people. He's the hinderer of God's work. Now, let me say that Satan can only hinder God's people and God's work so far as God permits him to, because God's purposes are always accomplished. His will will be done, no matter who the adversary would be, whether it be human, whether it be demonic, whether it be Satan himself. However, the wicked one, according to the Apostle Paul, had the ability to hinder, to impede, to obstruct the child of God. Now needless to say, the devil doesn't hinder us from doing wrong. No, rather He yields and abets us whenever it comes to doing wrong and when it comes to sinning. whenever it comes to temptation and our yielding to temptation. Oh, he doesn't hinder us doing that. No, he's there to encourage us to do that. He's there eating and abetting it. He's there desiring and hoping that we will, as it were, fall for the bait and then feel and feel miserable and feel guilty and condemned because of our sin. Ah, but he'll not hinder that, but he will hinder us when we are doing good. The work of God is going forward, he's there to hinder. He's there to hinder you in your personal life, and you don't have to belong within the work of God to know how much Satan hinders, and it's amazing that the people that he uses to do so. It's amazing the people he uses to hinder, to hinder the work of God. We're not told how Satan hindered Paul. So we cannot even speculate. We dare not do that. That would be on the remit of scripture. We cannot speculate as to how Satan hindered. But he hindered nonetheless. He was unable to see these people again. Now he had sent Timothy to find out how they were getting on, but that wasn't enough for Paul. He wanted to be with them. He wanted to see them. He wanted... He wanted to talk with them. He wanted to have fellowship and communion with them. And he wanted to minister to them. He wanted to preach to them. And so what does Paul do about this satanic hindrance? Well, he takes it to God in prayer. He gets God to deal with the devil. and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way on to you. In other words, may God remove the obstacle. May God remove the hindrance so that I may come and see you again. And that's what we are to do when we find ourselves hindered and obstructed by the devil. None of us are a match for him. He is our adversary. Now he's not almighty, but he's mighty. He is the wicked one, the prince of the power of the air. And therefore we call in the Lord. We call in the Lord to fight our battles. And thank God, he's never lost a battle yet. We have an example of this very thing happening in the life of Joshua, the high priest. Now, not Joshua that led the children of Israel into the promised land. This was Joshua, the high priest. In the book of Zechariah, in the chapter number three, in the verse one, we are told that Satan stood at Joshua's right hand to resist him, to hinder him. What did Joshua do? Joshua called in the Lord. He didn't call for an exorcist. He didn't call for a deliverance meeting. He just took it to God in prayer. And the Lord said unto Satan, this is what we're told, the Lord rebuked thee, O Satan. Christ, God took on the devil on behalf of Joshua. And thank God, God is on our side. And of God before us, then who can be against us? When Satan hinders, then we must seek the help of the Lord on all occasions. Fellowshiping with the saints was important to the Apostle Paul. I wonder, is it important to us? That's what it says concerning the New Testament believers there in Acts chapter two when they were converted. In Acts chapter two we read, concerning those that had gladly received the word and baptized and were added to the church, we read, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. So fellowship was important. was important. I wonder is it important to us? Do we seek to maintain and then cultivate the fellowship that we have with other believers? Do we see the benefit of gathering together for fellowship with those of like precious faith as our gathering together for fellowship? Is it marked with the purpose of encouraging one another so much the more as we see the day approaching, the day of Christ has returned, approaching or do we gather to fellowship in order to gossip about one another? Or maybe to deride another brother or sister Paul's prayer that God would direct his way onto these saints' evidence is that he loved their company. As I thought about that, I thought about, I wonder how many people love my company. Am I one whose company people want to be with and to be in? Am I an individual In my fellowship, do I help others on to God? These are questions that I had to ask my heart. You have to ask your heart this evening. And so he prays for fellowship. He wants to meet them again. And then he prays about a second matter. Secondly, he prays about the matter of faith. Look again at the words of verse 10 of chapter three, praying exceedingly that we may see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. Not only does he pray that God will open up the way to have fellowship with these saints again, but that his time among them would result in the perfecting or the maturing of that which was lacking in their faith. Remember what I said, Paul did not have much time to school these saints of God in the fundamentals and the particulars of the faith. I suppose they probably got what we would call a crash course on the fundamentals of the faith during those three Sabbath days and then he had to flee. That certainly wasn't enough time for them to grasp the great truths of God's precious word. You know a man could be in a place all his life and never exhaust the word of God and the teaching of God's word. It is an inexhaustible book that we have got. And there is inexhaustible teaching that we have within the word of God. And so Paul has understood here that I need to return. Lest these saints be still in their infancy. Lest they still are only on their rudiments or the basics of Christianity. I must return to them. I must speak and preach to them the word of God. And so knowing their lack of grounding in the things of God, Paul prays that God will permit him to return to this city in order to instruct the believers in the truths of God's word. Now there are two lessons that I learned from this. Firstly, our understanding of spiritual matters is not all given to us at conversion. Rather, the Christian life, the Christian life is a life where our understanding in the things of God grows and increases. Never get to the self-delusional point in your Christian life, brother or sister, or you think that you know everything because you don't and I don't. I'm learning every week as I study and as I prepare messages, I'm learning. And I trust that you're learning as you sit under the word of God. There is a growth of faith. Faith doesn't come as a package. It isn't as if whenever you're converted you're given a chip with all of faith in it and there you go. You've got a full grasp and understanding of every single truth that is found within the Word of God. No, rather our faith, and our faith is the Bible, this is the faith, there must be a growing in faith, and that growth is pictured in various ways throughout the scriptures. Let me give you one example. We have the example of the corn of wheat that falls into the ground, and then that corn of wheat, it germinates, and then it grows into the blade, and then we read about the ear, and then the full corn in the ear. And we have their growth. And what we have in that picture is a growth or a picture of our faith and our maturing and our growing in the things of God. There is a maturing of our faith. And Paul understood this. He spoke to them that there were things lacking and they needed to be put right on those matters. In other words, that their faith would grow. that their understanding would increase. And as understanding increases, then faith increases. The second thing that I learned is that the understanding of spiritual truths comes from the instruction and the preaching of God's servants. You see, it was going to be through preaching that the deficiencies of these people were going to be rectified. Their deficiency of faith was going to be rectified by Paul coming and preaching onto them. Matthew Henry wrote, the ministry of the word is helpful, and to be desired and used for the perfecting of that which is lacking in our faith. And really what Paul is giving here is a mandate for the preaching of God's word. If you want God's people, If I want God's people to be mature in their faith, then I'm to preach the word to them. Not the Belfast Telegraph, as I said on Sunday, not something that's circulating on social media. That's not gonna bring you to faith. That's not gonna bring you to a maturing of your faith. No, it's going to be the word of God. For an individual to be brought to maturity, or the word is perfection here, to completeness, to wholeness, then that person, then that individual must sit under the preaching of God's word. But not only that, but that individual must resolve to obey the word. There needs to be an obeying of the word, not just the hearing, but a heeding and the obeying of God's precious word. I wonder, is my faith growing? Is your faith growing? Has it grown? Has it grown? Are you advancing in your knowledge of God and thereby your faith increasing as a result? You see, the more we get to know God, the more our faith in Him will be increased and strengthened. But the little you know of God, your faith's going to be weak. It's going to be small. And so we get to know Him as the Word of God is preached. We find that as our knowledge of God's Word grows, then our faith grows in tandem with that knowledge. The more I know about God, the more I trust Him. Is that not the case? The more I know him, intellectually, yes, but also personally in my life, the more I know him, the more I come to trust him. Oh, for grace to trust him more and to know him more. And so he prays about an increase of faith. This is what the disciples prayed when they found themselves where faith was lacking. They said, Lord, increase our faith. Faith can be increased. I say, we do not get it all at salvation. And then he prays about a third matter, and very quickly he prays about the matter of, I've tried to get a word starting with F, fondness. Fondness, fellowship, faith, and love. We see very quickly from the words in verse number 12 that Paul prays two petitions relating to this matter of fondness or love. He prays that the saints would love the saints, and he prays that the saints would love the sinner. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love, one toward another and toward all men, all kinds of men. Sectarian bigotry has no place within the church of Jesus Christ. And I say that there is a terrible lack of love among the people of God in these days. A terrible lack of love. It's tragic. It's tragic. And yet it is this love for the brethren that marks out the true believer. 1 John 3, 14, and we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Now Paul acknowledges in chapter one that love did exist within the lives of these saints. Remember what we read in verse three? He spoke about their labor of love. And so they labored and love was the motivating thing. It's not what it should be, not duty, but love. And love for what? Love for the church, love for the minister, Love for Christ. It is love for Christ that brings us then into joyous labor for the master. And so there's love already in this assembly of saints. It isn't that it's not there, but Paul is praying that this love would increase, that it will abound, that it would super abound, and then it would manifest itself to, first of all, those inside the assembly, and then also overflowing to those outside the assembly of saints. I don't need to tell you that we are to love God's people. And that love will manifest itself in so many ways. It'll manifest itself in how we speak of them, how we treat them, how we pray for them, what we do for them in their time of need, in their time of necessity, their time of sickness, their time of illness, their time of sorrow and bereavement. Ah, brethren and sisters, it's not about talking about love and speaking about love, there is the activity of love. All good and well saying that we love the brethren, but do we show it? Do we show it? And then we are to love those, we not only love those who are God's people, but we are to love those who are not yet God's people. We are even to go as far as loving our enemies according to the teaching of Jesus Christ in Matthew 5, verse 44. We're to love our enemies. We're to bless them that curse us. We're to do good to those who despitefully use us and say all manner of evil against us. We're to love the lost. We're to love God's people. I wonder how is our love for our fellow brethren and sisters this evening, and what about our love for the lost? Where is it? Where is it? We thought on Sunday evening about hell. We thought about the place where loved ones and friends and family will be without Christ. I wonder, In light of what was preached, what have you done? What have I done to win the lost? In these days, since Sunday evening, is it abounding? Is our love abounding? Is it increasing? You see, brethren and sisters, it may not be, but here's something we can pray then tonight, and we have got good biblical ground. We have good biblical ground to pray that God would increase our love. Our love for one another and our love for the lost. You know, you can't love someone too much. You can't love someone too much. And all for an abounding of love among us, brethren and sisters. And whenever people are not here and are missing, that you as a believer and you as a friend and a member of the congregation, that you reach out to such people. and you love them, and show them that you care. And when time of sickness and sorrow comes, that you're there, willing to help in whatever way you can, over an enlarging of our love for the Lord. How does this come, the love for the saints and the love for sinners? It comes whenever our love for the Lord increases, whenever that abounds. Well, then it spills over to these other areas in our lives. We love the brethren. We love the lost because we love him. We love the Savior. We love the gospel. Now, the question is, did God answer Paul's prayers? Well, regarding his requests, we thought about three requests. Regarding to that request to see the face of the Saints to renew fellowship with them it is believed that whenever Paul visited Macedonia some five years later from the writing of this letter it is very likely that he did visit this city of Thessalonica again and that journey into Macedonia is presented in Acts 19 and Acts chapter 20, and you can read those chapters together. And so this prayer is believed by Bible commentators that God did answer the prayer of the Apostle Paul. He did see their face again. He did a fellowship with them again. But what about the other two requests? About this request for the faith, the making up of their faith, this fondness towards the saints and towards the sinners. Well, one last text and then we're finished. 1 Thessalonians 1, sorry, 2 Thessalonians 1 and the verse number three. Paul is now writing his second epistle. And so we know that this is later than his first epistle. Don't forget what he's prayed. This is what he said. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly. And the charity, or the love, of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth. Specific prayer leads to specific answers. There he prayed that their faith would increase, it would grow, and we read that your faith grows exceedingly, and he prayed that their charity and their love would also abound, and we read in this verse that it was abounding. God answered prayer. What a simple truth to end on this evening. God hears and God answers prayer. Amen. How do I know that? Because each and every one of us, I would suggest, I would almost think I would be right in saying this, each and every one of us are an answer to the prayers of some other individual. Somebody prayed for our salvation and God heard their prayers. and God has heard our prayers, and God will hear, and God will answer our prayers. May he do that, even as we come to the throne of heavenly grace, and may God hear and answer our prayers, and may we pray, even along these lines this evening, as we have this template for prayer for those within the Church of Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Let's stand for that prayer. Just give your legs a little rest. Let's stand and pray. Father in heaven, we want to thank thee for thy word. Lord, we think of those saints of God that are apart from us this evening. Lord, we want to pray that we might have fellowship with them again and so raise them up to health and strength and bring them back into our company. once again, and oh for our faith to increase in these days, and that our love for thee, and for each other, and for the lost would abound. We would have to confess, Lord, that our love for thee is not what it ought to be, and therefore are we not surprised that then our love for one another and the lost is not what it ought to be. Forgive us, Lord, oh for our heart to love thee. And O for a love that is like thine, a love divine, a love for high and low, O me dear Lord, a love like this bestow. We pray these are petitions in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. You may be seated.