+I. In a faithful declaration of the Gospel.+
+II. In its far-reaching influence on others.+
+III. Speaks for itself, rendering explanation unnecessary.+
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9, 10.
_Conversion and its Evidence._
A good work cannot be hid. Sooner or later it will manifest itself
and become the general topic of a wide region. The successful worker
meets with the fruit of his labours at times and places unexpected.
Wherever the apostles went, the reputation of the newly founded
Church had preceded them, and the varied features of the great change
that had passed over the Thessalonians were eagerly discussed. We
have here a description of conversion and its evidence.
+I. The conversion of the Thessalonians.+--"For they themselves show
of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned
to God from idols" (ver. 9). You have watched a vessel lying at
anchor in a tidal river with her bowsprit pointing seaward. After a
brief interval you have observed the force of the incoming tide swing
the vessel completely round, so that her head points in an exactly
opposite direction. Not less apparent was the change among the
Thessalonians when the flood-tide of Gospel blessing entered the
city. Conversion is a turning about--a change from sin to holiness,
from unbelief to faith, from darkness to light, from Satan to God.
1. _They turned from idols._--For generations the majority of the
members of this Church, with their forefathers, had been idolaters,
"walking as other Gentiles walked in the vanity of their mind," etc.
(Eph. iv. 17, 18, ii. 12). _Any creature, real or imaginary, invested
with Divine properties is an idol._ An angel, a saint, wealth, an
idea, or any object to which we ascribe the omnipotence that belongs
to God, becomes to us an idol--a false deity. _An idol is also the
true God falsely conceived._ The Pantheist, mistaking the effect for
the cause, regards the vast fabric of created things as God, and
Nature, with her grand, silent motions, is the object of his
idolatry. The sensualist, reluctant to believe in punishment for sin,
exalts the boundlessness of Divine mercy, and ignores the other
perfections, without which there could be no true God. Idolatry is a
sin against which the most faithful warnings have been uttered in all
ages, and on account of which the most terrible judgments have been
inflicted, yet it is the worship to which man is most prone.
2. _They turned to God._--The _one_ God whom Paul preached as "the
God that made the world and all things therein"; the living God,
having life in Himself, and "giving to all life and breath and all
things"; the _true_ God, having in Himself the truth and substance of
essential Deity, in extreme contrast with an "idol, which is nothing
in the world." With shame and confusion of face as they thought of
the past, with penitential sorrow, with confidence and hope, they
turned to God from idols.
+II. The evidence of their conversion.+--Seen: 1. _In the object of
their service._ They "serve the living and true God," serve Him in
faithful obedience to every command, serve Him in the face of
opposition and persecution--with every faculty of soul, body, and
estate--in life, in suffering, in death. _This is a free, loving
service._ The idolater is enslaved by his own passions and the iron
bands of custom. His worship is mechanical, without heart and without
intelligence. The service acceptable to God is the full, spontaneous,
pure outflow of a loving and believing heart. _It is an ennobling
service._ Man becomes like what he worships; and as the object of his
worship is often the creation of his own depraved mind, he is debased
to the level of his own gross, polluted ideas. Idolatry is the
corrupt human heart feeding upon and propagating its own ever-growing
corruptions. The service of God lifts man to the loftiest moral
pinnacle and transfigures him with the resplendent qualities of the
Being he adores and serves. _It is a rewardable service._ It brings
rest to the world-troubled spirit, fills with abiding happiness in
the present life, and provides endless felicity in the
future--results idolatry can never produce.
2. _Seen in the subject of their hope._--"And to wait for His Son"
(ver. 10). (1) Their hope was fixed on _Christ as a Saviour._ "Even
Jesus, who delivereth us from the coming wrath." Terrible will be the
revelation of that wrath to the impenitent and unbelieving. As soon
as one wave of vengeance breaks another will follow, and behind that
another and another interminably, so that it will ever be _the wrath
to come!_ From this Jesus delivers even now. (2) Their hope was fixed
on _Christ as risen._ "Whom He raised from the dead." They waited for
and trusted in no dead Saviour, but One who, by His resurrection from
the dead, was powerfully declared to be indeed the Son of God.
(3) Their hope was fixed on _Christ as coming again._ "To wait for
His Son from heaven." There is a confusing variety of opinions as to
the _character_ of Christ's second advent; as to the _certainty_ of
it nothing is more plainly revealed. The exact period of the second
coming is veiled in obscurity and uncertainty; but it is an evidence
of conversion to be ever waiting for and preparing for that coming as
if there were a perpetual possibility of an immediate manifestation.
The uncertainty of the time has its use in fostering a spirit of
earnest and reverential inquiry, of watchfulness, of hope, of
fidelity.
+Lessons.+--1. _Conversion is a radical change._ 2. _Conversion is a
change conscious to the individual and evident to others._ 3. _The
Gospel is the Divinely appointed agency in conversion._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._