Now let's turn in our Bibles
to 1 Thessalonians. In the first verse of this letter
we see Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of
the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Last week we looked at the first
chapter, and I tried to impress upon all of us the power of God
that we see demonstrated in what took place here at Thessalonica. how that these three men, Paul
and Timothy and Silas, visited here, preached the gospel, and
God raised up a church. God saved some of his people
here in Thessalonica. We read in that passage in Acts
that they passed through two towns on their way to Thessalonica. But we don't read of anyone being
saved in either of those two towns, and we don't read of a
church being raised up in those places. And that just reminds
us again of God's sovereign grace. Churches don't happen by accident. God has chosen a people before
the foundation of the world in Christ. And he sends his gospel
out, he sends his preachers out preaching the gospel, going to
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Whosoever
believeth and is baptized shall be saved, whosoever believeth
not shall be damned. We know, as our brother used
to say many years ago, somewhere or sometime, between the cradle
and the grave, God will cross the paths of his elect with the
gospel. And not only will he cross their
paths, but they will believe. And that's what we see here happened
in Thessalonica. But again, I want to impress
upon us the power, the great power. In fact, In Paul's prayer
in the first chapter of Ephesians, he tells us that in saving a
sinner, because sinners, all of us, are dead, spiritually
dead, alienated from God, the life of God. And for God to save
one, quicken one, raise one, it takes the same power that
it took in raising the body of Jesus Christ from the grave,
from the dead, the same power. We know that our God is all powerful. And if he were not, there wouldn't
be anyone saved. Because not only does it take
the grace of God, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteousness
that he has established, but it takes his sovereign power
and calling calling one who is dead in trespasses and sins to
where we hear the voice of the shepherd and follow him. What a great work God had accomplished
and had done here in Thessalonica. He tells them in that first chapter,
our gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power and
demonstration of the spirit of God. Now I want us to go on to the
second chapter, if you will, today. As we look at this chapter, it's
obvious to me we can see what had taken place in the interval
from the time that Paul had been sent away from Thessalonica until
the time that he writes this letter back to them. He had sent Timothy back. We
read about that in the third chapter, but he had sent Timothy
back and Timothy had returned to Paul with good tidings, the
scripture says, with good tidings of their faith and their love. But as we go through this second
chapter, it becomes obvious what had taken place at Thessalonica. The same thing that usually took
place everywhere Paul went to preach. He would go into a city
and God would bless his ministry there and he would be called
to go somewhere else and immediately these false teachers, false prophets
would come in and they would accuse Paul of being a false
teacher, a false prophet, and being in the ministry for his
own gain, for his own self-aggrandizement, that he was seeking a following
after himself. And we see that as we go through
this second chapter. But I love to think, and Brother
Schroeder brought this out in Sunday School, how that our God
brings good out of evil. Now, not always, but we know
he has that power. He has that power to bring good
out of evil. And he does it many times. I
believe he did it here. by these false teachers coming,
following Paul into this church and speaking evil of Paul, that
God brings good out of this. You say, how? Because as we go
through this chapter, I realize that every man, every man that
God calls and puts into the ministry, he should carefully, we should
carefully look and read what the Apostle Paul here declares
about himself and his ministry. We should go over this chapter
quite often, those of us who preach the gospel. We've got
a lot of false prophets in our day, a lot of people that are
just using the church or using God's people if they can to get
rich and they exploit the people of God. Well, that's probably
what they were accusing the Apostle Paul of doing also. So let's
look at this second chapter. And first, I want us to see that
he states what the Thessalonians knew about him. What they knew about him. You notice that word no in the
first verse. For yourselves, brethren, know
We're going to look at three things that they knew about Paul,
and Paul calls them to record this. First, you know, Paul says,
his message was not empty. Notice that in verses one and
two. Yourself's brethren know our entrance in unto you, that
it was not vain, it was not empty, it was not light, it was not
unprofitable. But even after that we had suffered
before and were shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we were
bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much
contention. His message, he says, was not
empty. It wasn't vain. The gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ is not an empty message. In fact, the
apostle tells us that Christ is both the power of God and
the wisdom of God. And this is one of the reasons,
no doubt, that the philosophers and the so-called knowledgeable
people in this world did not receive the gospel, do not receive
the gospel. That most of those of us who
believe the gospel are just common people, as I could use that word. A common God to a common people,
a common gospel. Because the philosophers, they
think the gospel is foolishness. It's foolishness. Paul says,
my message wasn't vain. It wasn't empty. It wasn't some
light message. I preached the gospel to you.
I'm sure he could have said to this church what he told the
Corinthians. I determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. You see, the gospel
is a product of the wisdom of God. People talk about the simple
gospel, and yes, the gospel may be stated and may be preached
in simple terms, and the simpler the better. The simpler the better,
that's for sure. But my friends, the gospel is
a product of the wisdom of God. How it is that a thrice holy
God can forgive and receive a sinful individual? How is that possible? that God
can pull to his bosom those who by nature are full of iniquity
and evil and every sin. How is that possible? God cannot
change. And he has declared the soul
that sinneth it shall die. How can anyone be reconciled
to God? Well, the gospel reveals this
truth. The gospel is the truth of this,
isn't it? How that God may be a just God,
and I love that verse in Isaiah that tells us this. Look unto
me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved, for I'm God,
and there is none other. A just God and a Savior. A just God. Every sin, no matter
how small we may think it is, every sin a thrice holy God is
going to punish. And if he doesn't, he ceases
to be the holy God that he is. Well, how then can he forgive
sinners? By taking their sins, those whom
he loved with an everlasting love, Taking their sins and laying
it upon His Son, Jesus Christ. And punishing their sins in Him. And taking His absolute righteousness,
His perfect righteousness, and accounting that to be the righteousness
of those He saves. The gospel is the wisdom of God. Speaking, we saw how Paul testified
that the Old Testament taught that there would be a Messiah.
And the Jews knew that. They believed that. They believed
there was going to come a Messiah. That means Christ in the Greek,
the anointed one. But what they didn't believe
is that he was going to suffer. That he was going to die. They
thought he would come and he would raise an army or something
like that and he would lift, he would lead the nation of Israel
once again to that place like it had been when David was king. Ruler of the nations. They looked
down on Gentiles as dogs. They deserved, and that's the
kind of messiah they were looking for. But Paul took the scriptures,
we saw this, and he showed how the Old Testament taught that
this messiah that you've been looking for, that you've been
taught is coming, he must suffer and he must die. The scriptures
teach that, and how that Jesus is that messiah. He preached
the gospel to them. He said, I didn't come to you
with empty words. My entering into you was not
vain. Paul had been mistreated. You
notice in verse two, he reminded them that when he came, he had
just left Philippi. And at Philippi, he had been
shamefully mistreated, him and Silas, that they had been beaten. put into a prison, put in stocks
in a lower part of the prison where the garbage was dumped
on them. He'd been shamefully mistreated
for preaching this gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, he comes to
Professor Lanica, maybe, Paul, you need to smooth off the rough
edges. A lot of preachers like to do
that. Oh, don't talk to us about election.
People don't like that. Don't talk to us about God's
sovereignty, how that God reigns and rules over all of his creation. Well, man, we want to believe
in the dignity of man, the ability of man. No, Paul said we were
shamefully entreated. Well, Paul, maybe you need to
change your message. Maybe your message is just too
hard. You just tell too much truth
about God. You don't whittle God down and
raise man up. You do just the opposite. You
lift God up and you whittle man down. Maybe you need to change
your message. Paul said no. You know that was
not the case. That was not the case. I remember
reading a sermon by Charles Spurgeon, or an article recently, and he
told young preachers, I guess they were young preachers, he
said, you say your people don't like to hear about sovereignty,
the sovereign grace of God? He said, preach it until they
like it. Preach it until they like it.
Man, the lost man, natural man, he doesn't like God, period. He's enmity with God. And that
brings me to my second point. Paul says, you know, my message
wasn't to please men. Look in verses three through
six. For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness,
nor in guile, But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust
with the gospel, even so we speak. Not as pleasing men, but God,
which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used
we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness,
God is witness. Nor of men sought we glory, neither
of you nor yet of others. No, Paul said, you know this. You know the message I came was
not a vain message. It was not a light message. And
you know that we didn't preach to please man. Do you remember
what he wrote in Galatians? If I please man, I'm no longer
the servant of God. To Paul, the gospel was a sacred
trust. Look at that in verse four. But
as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. Let's just, let me see how I
could illustrate this, but suppose you were in England and the king
gave you his crown. That's a treasure. Have you ever
seen those crowns over there, all the diamonds and rubies and
emeralds and precious stones in that crown, and he gave it
to you to keep. Take this home, Hunter, you take
this home, and you keep it, and I'll come back and get it in
a month." That'd be a trust. Well, this gospel, Paul says,
is a treasure. It's a treasure. Yes, I have
it in an earthen vessel, a clay pot, but it's still a treasure,
and he's entrusted me with this gospel. I like to think of it
as a relay race. We've maybe watched some of the
Olympics recently, and when the men and women run a relay race,
there's four of them, and they have that baton, don't they?
And that man starts off first and he run, he makes a circle
and he, but he's got to pass that baton on to the second runner
and the second to the third. And it's very important that
they don't mess up in passing that baton because you can be
disqualified immediately if you do not pass the baton as you're
supposed to. And I like to think of this gospel
that God is committed to every man that he calls to preach. It's a treasure. You're not to
add to it. You're not to subtract anything
from it. You are to keep it. And you are,
by God's grace, to pass it on to the next generation. The gospel
can be lost, my friends, in one or two generations. That's just
so. There's churches today, church
houses, I maybe should say, in this country that may be full
of people. And at one time there was a pastor,
there was a preacher there who was preaching the gospel of the
grace of God. But now there may be some woman,
and God doesn't call women to preach. Or it may not be a woman,
maybe just a man. But he doesn't preach the gospel.
No, he doesn't have that treasure anymore. This is a trust that
God has given unto us, and not just to me as a pastor of this
church, but to all of us here who are part of this church. I hope that there's no one here
who said, well, there's hundreds of Baptist churches all over
Houston. I could go to any of them. You
could. But what would you hear? He said,
well, I'd hear a good preacher. He's a good speaker, and everybody
likes him. And yes, but would you hear the
gospel? I'm going to be gone. There's
someone going to take my place sooner rather than later. I know that. And oh, you want
to have a man, whoever it is that God would lead you to be
the pastor here, you want to know that he knows the gospel
and he preaches the gospel and he's not ashamed of the gospel.
He's not afraid to preach the gospel. I've got to pass this
gospel on to the next person, to you. And Paul knew that. You know the gospel. It's geared
to stain the pride of man. Let that sink in. The gospel
is geared just to stain the pride of man because all of us by nature
are so proud and so haughty. And we look down on other people.
I never do that. We always find someone that we
can judge ourselves with and we'll come up on top. The Lord, when he said, there's
none good but God, we realize that his standard of measurement
must be different from ours because we see people and know people
and realized there are good people, yes, not before God. The gospel is geared just to
stain the pride of man, to bring us down to where we realize and
confess, my condition is so bad, it's so awful, that it took God
to come into this world as a man to save me. That's how bad my condition is,
and yours too. Without a Savior who is God in
the flesh, no one would be saved. The third thing, he said, you
know, my message was to help men, not to Not to flatter men,
but to help men. Verse 7, but we were gentle among
you, even as a nurse cherished her children. So being affectionately
desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not
the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were
dear unto us. His message, well, you know this,
Paul says, you know my message wasn't light. I didn't come there
to flatter men. And we deported ourselves like
a nursing mother. Here's a nursing mother and all
the pain she's gone through to bring this little baby into the
world. and she loves her baby and cherishes her baby and nurses
her baby and she's so gentle and kind. He said, that's the
way we were with you. We weren't haughty, proud, demanding. No, we were gentle among you. Every preacher ought to think
about that a while. It's so easy, you know, to be so demanding. Paul said
that wasn't our case at all. Our concern was not for yours. I think he says that in another
letter. We weren't concerned about yours,
about your money, about your whatever you had to give, houses
and lands and all of those. It wasn't yours, it was you. We were concerned about you,
your soul, that we might present you as a chaste virgin unto the
Lord. Well, there's some things to
think about, but Paul says, you know. Now, let's move on. He calls upon the Thessalonians
to remember, remember our conduct among you. First of all, in verse
nine, for you remember, brethren, our labor and travail, for laboring
night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of
you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. How did Paul and
Silas and Timothy, how did they eat? They were only there for
three weeks, that's true, but how did they eat for those three
weeks? Paul lets them know, we didn't
make you, even though he wrote to the church at Corinth, he
that preaches the gospel should live of the gospel. In other
words, churches should maintain their pastors, yes. But Paul
would not accept gifts from the church at Corinth and he would
not accept gifts from this church here at Thessalonica. And he
said, you remember that. You remember that. Well, how
did they live? Well, they labored, they worked.
We know Paul was a tent maker. Every Jewish family, they taught
their sons and daughters, I assume, a trade of some kind. That was
just part of being a Jew. And Paul, his family taught him
to be a tent maker. And you say, well, how many tents
could you sell? Well, you've got to realize that
every Roman soldier had a tent. Every Roman soldier carried a
tent. So yes, Paul said that's one
way we supported ourselves by laboring night and day. We didn't
labor all the time making tents because part of that time we
were preaching. Look over, or look back, I guess,
to Philippians just a moment. This is so pretty here. Philippians
chapter four. How were they supported? Well,
they supported themselves by working, earning money so that
they might preach. Have you ever read about the
missionaries who had such a burden for the slaves in the West Indies? And the only way they could get
there to preach the gospel to them They sold themselves into
slavery just so they would be taken to those islands and preach
the gospel to those people. I tell you, we live in a flabby
generation, don't we? We want everything to be smooth
sailing. Don't call on us to do any sacrifice. Don't depend upon us. Listen,
this church at Philippi, this is what's so beautiful to me
here in Philippians chapter four. And let me begin in verse 11. Paul is in this passage, he's
thanking this church for a gift. And sometimes it's hard to thank
a person for a gift without doing it in such a way as they think
you're asking for another gift. I know that by experience as
a pastor. Churches have given me gifts
when we were in Mexico as missionaries and men in churches, a few over
the years. I remember one brother up in
Pennsylvania, his wife hated the gospel. He owned a big lumber
mill up there. His first name was Tom. Tom and
his wife and I think a preacher, he took us out to eat one evening
and I felt somebody tapping on my knee. And I put my hand down
there and he slipped some hundred dollar bills in my hand. But to thank him for that, Sometimes
it's difficult to do that without coming across as, do it again.
You don't want to do that. Well, Paul found himself in that
same case here when he wrote this letter to the Church of
Philippi. He said, not that I speak in
respect of want. I'm not poor-mouthing. I'm not
telling you how hard it is and how much I've suffered and all
that. Like these people, you know,
if you don't send us $100, we're going to have to go off the radio. We're not going to be able to
buy that jet we've been needing to get us. If you don't send
us some money, all that phony baloney. Paul said, I'm not speaking
in respect of a gift. For I've learned in whatsoever
state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be a base,
and I'm glad he said he learned that, aren't you? Some of us,
we're still learning. Isn't it amazing that people
still believe that the more money you have, the more things you
have, that that's going to bring happiness, that's going to make
you content? Nothing could be farther from
the truth. You read all the time, don't
you, these famous people have millions of dollars and houses
in several places and the best cars and maybe even their own
plane and then they take their own lives. Why? Because they're in misery. Those
things do not bring contentment. I am instructed both to be full
and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do
all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding,
notwithstanding, you've done well. This church at Philippi,
you've done well. that you did communicate with
my affliction. Now you Philippians know also
that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from
Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving
and receiving, but you only. For even, now notice, even in
Thessalonica, this is where he is, this is the letter he's writing,
when I was there in Thessalonica, You just left Philippi, even
in Thessalonica, you sent once and again unto my necessity. Now notice, not because I desire
a gift. I'm not saying this because I
want you to do it again. Not because I desire a gift,
but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. Remember that,
he tells them, remember that. Number two, remember how we conducted
ourselves among you, back here in 1 Thessalonians 2. Your witnesses,
and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved
ourselves among you that believe. He's not saying they were sinless. That would contradict the word
of God. It would contradict his own testimony
that he gave in Romans chapter seven. But he is saying that
they behaved themselves among these Thessalonians in such a
way that they could not accuse them of being deceivers or somehow
using their religion as a cloak of unrighteousness. And then
number three, remember how we acted the part of a father toward
you. At first he said, we were like
a nursing mother to you. But don't forget this. Remember
this. We also were like a father. Let's read those verses, verses
11 and 12. As you know how we exhorted and
comforted you and charged every one of you as a father doth his
children, that you would walk worthy of God who hath called
you unto his kingdom and glory. Mothers are gentle. Fathers sometimes, they play
the bad cops role, don't they? Paul said, we were like a father
to you. We exhorted you. And God's people
need exhortation. Children need exhortation. I
think of those of you here this morning who are young and have
young children, you fathers especially, but the responsibility of being
a father to your children. One of the problems in our country
is so many young men, you know this, they don't even know their
father. They've never had a father to
instruct them and teach them. You have that place and that
responsibility. Paul said, that's the way we
behaved ourself towards you like a father. We exhorted you when
we saw there was something that needed correcting, maybe. We exhorted you. And when we
saw you in affliction, we comforted you. We encouraged you. Yes. And we charged you that
as God's children, you have to walk worthy of your father. Not
all conduct is worthy of those who professed that God is their
father. Just isn't. And look at this, he says, who
hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. If God's called you
into his kingdom, you're going to inherit glory also. They always go together, called into his kingdom and his
glory. Those that the Lord saves are
not going to be lost. That's another message. Let's
look at, let me hurry up here. Now I want you to notice the
third thing and I'll be very brief. He declares his reason
for giving thanks to God for them. What was it? He tells them, because when you
heard us preaching, you received our word as the word of God. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because when you received the word of
God, which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of
man, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually
worketh also in you that believe. Yeah. I'm sure you've probably
heard someone say, well, man wrote that book. I don't believe
in that stuff. That's just a book that man wrote
and superstitions and things in there to get people to be
afraid and all that kind of stuff. No, this is the word of God. And these people in Thessalonica,
when they heard Paul preaching and Silas and Timothy, they heard
the word as it was the word of God. And Paul said, I'm so thankful
for that. Then let me conclude with this. He informs the Thessalonians
about his absence. Let's look down to verse 17.
But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in
presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your
face with great desire. Now, the word that is translated
taken from you, from what I've read at least, it's a word that
is used when parents leave their children orphans. They don't
do it on purpose. They're taken from them. They
love their children. They'd love to remain and raise
their children, but they're taken from them. Paul said that's the
way it was with us. We didn't just leave because
we thought we could find greener pasture somewhere else. We were
taken from you. Remember the brethren, they took
these men and moved them on because of the uproar that was raised
there in Thessalonica. They would have pulled Paul apart
if they could have. We were taken from you. We were
taken from you. And it's not like we didn't desire
to be with you, but we've been hindered. This is something to
think about. Verse 18, wherefore, we would
have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered
us. You see, Satan He's like a roaring lion, isn't
he? Now he's under God's control,
we know that. He can't move a finger, can't
raise a hair on his head if he had one, without God's permission. But yet Satan is in this world,
my friends, and God allows him to do certain things. And he
stirred up strife everywhere Paul went, and they had to keep
moving on. so that it hindered them from
going back to Thessalonica. That's what he would have liked
to have done because he loved these people, but Satan hindered
them. I pray that the Lord would bless
this word to us this morning. I read a message about Joe Terrell
this past week, a message he had put in his bulletin. But
he told of an experience he had there in Rock Valley, Iowa. One Sunday, he got up to preach.
He said he felt so bad he would have liked to have just dismissed
and gone home. But he didn't. He preached the
message that God had given to him, God had laid on his heart.
It had to do with baptism. Baptism. In that area, there's so many
of those Reformed people, Dutch Reformed, Netherland Reformed,
and you know they sprinkle their babies. Some of them had been
listening to Joe preach for years. But they were still holding on
to that old sprinkling as baptism. It wasn't baptism. But the message
that day, I forget how many people within a week came to him and
told him or asked him if they could be baptized. May the Lord bless His Word. That's always my prayer. I know
that's your prayer, that He blesses His Word to all of us. I trust
He will today.