Exposition of I & II Thessalonians 1/3: Flee from Idolatry

This is the first of a trilogy of Thursday mid-week prayer meeting sermons delivered in February 2011 on selected parts of I & II Thessalonians; and includes notice of Queen Elizabeth II's message of support for the King James Bible on the occassion of its 400th anniversary of 1611 to 2011. The first sermon is largely focused on repentance from idolatry (I Thess. 1:9). The title of this first sermon, "Flee from idolatry," comes from I Cor. 10:14. It is subtitled, "Repent!," & Gavin explains this should be understood in the context of "The Gospel" (II Thess. 1:8) of: Repentance (I Thess. 1:9), "Grace" (II Thess. 1:12), Faith (II Thess. 1:3,4,11), "Sanctification" (I Thess. 4:3, e.g., II Thess. 1:3,11), and "Judgement" (II Thess. 1:5). And while Gavin says all of those things are important, he says most of the sermon will be on "repentance" in turning from idolatry. Thus in this sermon, Gavin is primarily concerned with, and focused on, the issue "that men should repent" (Mark 6:12) with respect to the sin of idolatry (I Thess. 1:9). He lists various idols including lust idols (Col. 3:5) such as: Big Beat Popular Music; TV & matinee idols; sport idols; materialism, vain philosophy idols such as atheistic Communism, secularism, and Darwinian macroevolution; the gods of drunkenness & gluttony; together with heathen religions in the context of his 2004 trip to Japan and some of the Christian Missionary work there; and he also refers to some of the idols of apostate Christianity in e.g., Roman Catholicism & Eastern Orthodoxy. The sermon ends with a prayer of repentance from any idolatry and belief in the Biblical Christ of religiously conservative Protestant Christianity.