I invite your attention back
to 1 Thessalonians this morning. The title of my message is Your
Election. Your Election. Now, the word election is a gospel
truth. The principle of election is
a gospel truth, repeated in the Word of God over 140 times. But just that word alone, speaking
that word, strikes a chord in everyone who hears it used in
the preaching of the gospel. It is, that is election is, as
all truths, as the gospel itself, a divine action that men will
utterly embrace or utterly despise and utterly reject. It reduces one of these effects
in men because it is truth. It is truth and therefore it
is singular and if it is just one thing then you either believe
it or you don't. If I give you a couple of things
you might have a choice here but election is just one thing. The gospel is just one thing. Christ is the one way, one truth,
and one life. And that sort of just puts you
in a precarious position, if you will. You're either in or
you're out, if it's just one thing. Just one thing. This truth is singular and immediately
takes salvation out of the hands of men, which they're not particularly
fond of, unless they are men who know the gospel. And therefore,
reveals precisely that salvation belongs to the Lord. It is His salvation. Election
is God's business. Conceived in His mind and executed
in His purpose before the world began, before any of us existed,
before the globe was here, before the stars were hung in their
sockets, God chose whom He would save before the foundation of
the world. The why of it belongs to God. The why of it. And it's useless. It is a useless and futile effort
for anyone to spend time and energy to try to figure out why
God chose some to salvation and left others to their own devices.
Don't waste your time there. You're not going to find an answer.
In the Word of God we find the doctrine of election is connected
with the love of God. Here He speaks to those who are
beloved, knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God. So election
is tied to the love of God. It's tied to the grace of God.
It's called the election of grace in Romans chapter 11. It's tied
to the kindness of God and is revealed in the gospel of God.
And though some say that election is a minor doctrine, preachers
like to say that who don't believe it. They say it's a minor doctrine. Those who speak thusly have spent
their time avoiding Scripture rather than believing Scripture. Those who say that election is
confusing are simply lying. They're lying. Election is not
confusing. It is either despised or loved
because it is always, let me say this very clearly, election
is despised or loved because it's always understood. You can't be mistaken about what
it means. You can't be. This is not deep
theology. It requires years of rigorous
study to grasp. Election is simply this. God
choosing whom He would save. What's not to understand? Oh,
that's so deep. No, it's not. You just want the
waters to be muddy. They ain't muddy. The waters
are clear. What does election mean? Preacher, it sounds so
high and holy. No. Election means God, before the
world began, chose out of a fallen race that did not even exist
as of yet, those whom He would save. Paul said, Brethren, we
are bound to give thanks always to God, Brethren, beloved of
God, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth,
whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The election is simple. It is
plain. Christ saved those whom God chose
in eternity as effectual redemption. And if you or I hate this truth,
it is precisely because we understand it. That's why we hate it. Or if you or I love this truth,
it is precisely because we understand it. We understand what it says.
Don't say, I'm a confused preacher, I don't know what that means.
You do know what that means. Everybody knows what that means. I've been convinced for many
years that when the Gospel is preached, men understand what
you're saying. And some believe, and some don't. But they understand. And I've
always endeavored to preach the Gospel in a manner where if you
do leave this place in unbelief this morning, you'll know what
you don't believe. You'll know exactly what you don't believe. In either case, election reveals
that our salvation is totally the work of God, a work that
was accomplished without any input from us, without any fingerprints
of ours on it. And the only way anyone can know
that they were chosen by God before the world began is if
they have been given faith to believe the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the gospel of God's sovereign grace. Election is
not a sign hung on somebody's back. I'm one of the elect. We
don't know who the elect are. It's like faith. We don't know
who believes. We know if we do. But we don't
know if anybody else does. We can't know that. Now, we know
if we're elect. We don't know if anybody else
is. And nobody knows if we are. Nobody knows if we are. Only
we know that. It's a very personal and intimate thing between a
Savior and a sinner. Election then is not a sign,
like I said, on the back of men. If you have it, if you have been
chosen, you know it because God has given you faith to trust
the Lord Jesus Christ and His merits. If you're not a believer,
don't even think about election. It's not for you. As long as
you remain an unbeliever, that's something not for you. That's
for believers. That's what it says here. Brethren,
those who have faith, those who trust Christ. Yet Paul says here in verse 4,
that those in Thessalonica he knows are elect, knowing you
are elect. He knows that. He knows that. And the question is, how does
Paul know that? How does Paul know? Perhaps as an apostle,
he had an understanding that was beyond those who aren't apostles. Simon Peter, when confronting
Simon Magus in Acts chapter 8, did say he knew his heart was
bad. How does Simon Peter know that? Well, I think it's because
Simon Magus tried to buy the Holy Ghost. by the gifts of the
Holy Spirit. But he says, your heart is not
right with God. And yet our Lord says, our heart is deceitfully
wicked and desperately wicked and no one can know it but God. Perhaps Paul knew that they were
elect because after all he was writing under the influence of
inspiration. It is God who put these words
in his mind to write down for the children of God. And I know
this, certainly he was seeing them in certain actions and exhibitions
of faith that assured him that they were elect. There is no
doubt about that. You cannot read the context in which it is written
and discount that altogether or at all. But Paul here is not
listing a number of things by which a person can take stock
of what he has done and conclude that he is one of the elect. He is saying that if we have
been elected These things will be the tenor of our life in Jesus
Christ. These things do not make a person
elect. Election results in these things
being accomplished in the life of faith. Election makes it so. Let me give you an example of
that. Turn back to Colossians. I just want to go back to the
book of Colossians in chapter 3. Listen to the words of Paul. He says in verse 12, ìPut on
therefore as the elect of God.î ìPut on therefore as the elect
of God.î Heís saying this is what the elect do. This is what
the elect put on. This is what the elect put on.
ìPut on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved vows
of mercies.î Godís elect are merciful people. Kindness, theyíre
kind people. ìHumbleness of mind.î That means
downplaying your mind for the mind of Christ. meekness and
long-suffering. All the elect do that. That's
what Paul says. As therefore the elect forbearing one another
and forgiving one another. Putting up with each other and
forgiving each other. And if any man have a quarrel
against any, if you're mad at somebody, go ahead and forgive
them. Go ahead and forgive them. For Christ forgave us. Forgave
us. And above all things put on charity
Love, which is the bond of perfectness, of perfectness. This is what
the elect do, and this is what Paul's words here in 1 Thessalonians
speak of. And as we consider Paul's knowledge
of their election, the first thing to observe is that he's
not speaking to anyone but believers, anyone but believers, and that
is because the only evidence of election is the same as the
only evidence of salvation. And that's faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We believe unto the salvation of our soul.
We're not like those who turn back into perdition. We believe.
That's it. We believe. You see, because
faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of
things not seen. But faith is not a static thing.
We looked at that this morning in Scripture. It is a lively,
willing life lived for the glory of Almighty God. Faith always
looks to Christ. If you ain't looking to Christ,
you ain't believing. When you look into Christ, you
are. It's that simple. All our problems come from unbelief.
All our problems come from unbelief. We take our eyes off Christ,
we ain't got nothing but trouble. When we see Christ, we ain't
got nothing but joy and peace in Him, when we worship Him. Now what Paul sees here is seen
in a description that Paul gives as the basis of the knowledge
of their election, and you can't discount this truth. In verse
2, look at verse 2, We give thanks to God always for you, make mention
of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of
faith, your labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father. He gives thanks for that. He
gives thanks for that. The reason He gives thanks is
because they did not come up with it. God did. But they have
a work of faith. We find out later that that work
of faith is actually the spreading of the gospel, the preaching
of the gospel. That's the primary work of faith.
They have a labor of love, because love always labored for the loved
one. Love has nothing to do with anybody
else. Do you know that? Love has nothing to do with anybody
else loving you. Everywhere in Scripture, love
goes this way. It never comes back this way. I hear people
say, They're not showing Christian love to me. That's not your business. It's not your business. It's
your business to love, not to be loved. God never told anybody
else but you to love somebody. He didn't tell that other guy
to love you. First person. A labor of love. Love labors. Love labors. Patience of hope. 1 Corinthians 13 speaks of love. faith and hope. The greatest
of these is love, it says. These are all born of and directed
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 6, it says this, And
ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received
the word, in much affliction, with joy in the Holy Ghost. You
became followers of the apostles, as the apostles followed Christ.
Don't be followers of men. unless that man is in the same
line you are in looking to Christ. They received the Word of God
with much affliction, it said. They were persecuted for their
faith in Christ. When Paul went to Thessalonica,
there was God's own in every corner, and he had his work cut
out for him as he declared the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In verse 7 it says they are ensamples, so that they were ensamples of
all that believe in Macedonian Achaia. The word ensamples is
different from an example. An example is something we look
at and try to emulate. An ensample comes from the idea
of taking a piece of metal and banging on it until it comes
to the form you want it to be, the form it needs to be. They
were in samples, Paul said. They were beaten into a certain
shape and form. They suffered some things, and
by it, they developed character. They developed character. I'll tell you what I found out
about suffering. It's the only time we do build character. When things are going well, we
don't think about nothing but ourselves and how good a time we're having.
And that's just the way life is. Old J. Wimberley used to say,
if God is going to talk to me, you've got to keep the pressure
on. You will be an ensample. You will be formed to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you'll do it by the tribulations
and trials that come your way. In verse 9 it says, They turned
from their former gods to serve the true and living God. They
left their former ideas of religion Their former gods, their former
beliefs, quit them all together and turned to the living true
God, even the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 10, they looked for
Christ to come, waiting for the final chapter of the deliverance
because they had been delivered by Christ. It says, "...and to
wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath, to come." They
looked for Christ. All these are things that the
elect do. Paul makes that clear, and that's
one of the reasons why he said, knowing your election, brethren.
Knowing your election, brethren. All these things to Paul were
marks of one whom God had elected unto salvation and had been delivered
by the mighty work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing your election. And the immediate reason that
Paul asserts that he knew that through election, or that they
were elected, is what the gospel did to them. The gospel did to
them. He says in verse 4, Knowing,
brethren, beloved, your election of God, for our gospel came not
unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake. He said the gospel came And it
did something to the people to whom it came. Their reaction to hearing the
gospel is proof to Paul that they were the elect of God. Our
Lord said this, My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me. My sheep hear My voice and they
follow Me. They will not follow a stranger. They will follow
Me. The gospel brings eternal life to the elect. How does that
work? I don't know, but it works real well. I can't explain it.
We are born not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, even
by the word of God, which liveth and bideth forever. This is that
word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Of his own will beget
he us with the word of truth. The gospel brings life to the
elect. How does that work? I don't know,
because they can't even believe until they have life, can they?
Dead people don't believe. You say, well, I think I'll separate
this out of the pie chart and put this over here, regeneration
here, and faith here, and justification here. You better not. You better
leave them right where they are. They're all in Christ. That's
where they all are. Don't try to get outside that
blessed message of the gospel. Paul says, our gospel came. It
came. It was not requested, it was
not sought for or called for, it came. It came of its own volition,
of its own power, of its own direction, of its own intent,
as the gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel was preached
by the words of Paul. Paul stood up and preached and
declared the gospel of Jesus Christ, but the words of Paul
were not how the gospel came. That's what he says. For our
gospel came not unto you in word only. Now there was the word
preach, because God has ordained for the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. And you'll not hear the gospel
without a preacher according to Romans chapter 10. And that one who
preaches to you will not preach to you the gospel unless it's
been sent to preach the gospel. So you'll hear it in words, but
you can't blame the words of a man for the gospel coming to
you. Not in word only, but in power,
he said. in power. After preaching the gospel for
many years, Paul made this assessment of his ministry. Some believe
and some didn't. That's about all we can say about
preaching it. Well, I preach the gospel to everybody. Everybody
shows up, I preach to them, I tell them about Christ and what He's
done for His people. And in the end, some believe
and some didn't. So it doesn't have anything to do with me because
I tell everybody the same thing. It must not have anything to
do with me. Many heard the preaching of Paul
and did not believe. But when the gospel comes to
a man, that man believes and does so because upon hearing
the gospel, God gives the elect faith to believe it. Again, I
don't know how that works. I don't even know what the succession
of it is. I really don't. It's a wondrous
mystery which I appreciate a whole lot because it means I can't
explain it to you. Because if I could explain it
to you, then I'd just be really famous. I'd be really popular,
probably, if I could explain it. I can't explain it to you.
The gospel is a mystery. It remains a mystery to everybody
who believes it. We just believe it. We just believe it because
God said it. The gospel comes in power to
the elect. That's what he says. Well, our
gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power. In power,
the word there, dunamis, power, might, explosive power. And I know people like to look
at something like that and say, aha, that was my experience.
My experience. People like to equate that sort
of thing. Some immediately begin to apply personal emotional experience
to these words. But the power that Paul refers
to is the gospel itself. It came in power. the revelation
of Christ to the heart, the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. Look
over John 16 just for a moment. John chapter 16. Our Lord said
when the Holy Spirit comes, He's going to do some things. And
remember back here in our text, He says, came in power and in
the Holy Ghost. So this power that it came in
was in the Holy Ghost. What does the Holy Ghost do?
Make you jump up and shout. Make you wave your hands in the
air. Everybody see me? I'm a Holy Ghost believer. Make
you run up and down the aisles. Make you do stupid things. Make
you talk gibberish. Is that what the Holy Spirit
does? Is that how you tell people? No. The Holy Spirit comes. And
when He comes, He comes with the Gospel. And He comes with
power. And what does He do? Look what
it says. Verse 8. And when He has come, Christ
said, the Holy Spirit, He will reprove or convince the world
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now most people
will look at that and say, okay, I understand that. He'll convince
folks that are sinners and convince them that God's righteous or
they need to be righteous and that everybody's going to be
judged one day. That's not what our Lord said. Just in case folks
might say that, and the Bible often does this before somebody
asks a stupid question, God already answers it. He already does. What does it mean of sin? Because
they believe not on me. The sin of the Holy Spirit is
going to convince you it concerns Jesus Christ. They don't believe
on Christ. You don't believe on Christ.
That's what it's going to convince you of. That's what it's going to reprove you
for. And everything prior to belief is unbelief. Just mark
it down. Of righteousness. Oh, he's going
to tell me how to live right and be right and bring about
a righteousness and a merit of my own before God. That's what
he's going to tell me I do. No. Of righteousness because
I go to my Father. And you see me no more. He is
going to convince you of a righteousness that can only be received by
faith, and that is Christ Himself. God has made Him to be, unto
us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. A righteousness,
the righteousness that is revealed in the Gospel from faith to faith,
is that righteousness that sits at the right hand of the Father
even now, Jesus Christ, our righteousness. And the Holy Spirit is going
to convince you of that. He is not going to convince you to try to be righteous.
And what the Holy Spirit does, He's not going to convince you
to be a fool. He's going to convince you that God has accepted the
righteousness of Jesus Christ as your only acceptance before
God. The Holy Spirit ain't taught
you, you ain't been taught by the Holy Ghost, no matter how happy
and foolish you can get, no matter how many tongues you can speak
in, of judgment. Oh yeah, we're all going to stand
at the judgment one day. That's when the Holy Spirit is
going to convince us and give us a fear of hell. That's not what
this is talking about. A judgment because the prince of this world
is cast out. A judgment. Two ways to see that. The prince
of this world almost exclusively speaks of Satan. And on Calvary's
tree, our Lord Jesus Christ crushed Satan's head with his words.
But Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. And the judgment that God poured
out was on His Son, the Prince, and He was cast out. Wasn't He? He was cast out. But that's what
the Holy Spirit is going to convince you of. What does all that add
up to? Salvations of Christ. That's
what the Holy Spirit is going to do. Look on further down. He says, how be it when he, verse
13, the Spirit of truth is come, he'll guide you into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself. Wait a minute, what? He shall
guide you into all truth because he will not speak of himself.
So the Holy Spirit, if he's speaking of himself, what you conceive
to be the Holy Spirit, if he's speaking of himself, that's not
the truth. You see what he's saying? Because
he will not speak, whatever he shall hear from God, the Father,
that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall
glorify me, Christ said, for he shall receive from me, and
shall show it unto you. So what he tells you is about
Jesus Christ. All things that the Father hath
are mine, therefore he said he shall take the things of mine
and show them unto you. What's the work of the Holy Spirit
in this world? Teaching God's people about Jesus Christ So
well that don't seem like much well, you don't know him If you
knew him you'd say I could spend rest of my life, and I ain't
touched the hem of the garment I Ain't touched the hem of the
garment It says back in our text that much assurance comes when
the believer sees that Christ has accomplished salvation much
assurance People don't like to talk about
assurance because they think it's presumption. I don't think
it's presumption to believe God. I really don't. I believe that's
what faith does. It always believes God. Scripture
calls sometimes assurance the full assurance of faith or the
full assurance of knowledge. So this discounts the Thessalonians
looking at anything they do because these things have to do with
the mind and the heart. Faith and knowledge. These things
are not something you can put your fingers on. Something you
can see. You can't say, well, I know I'm
elect because I preached the gospel somewhere. No, no. Full
assurances of faith and knowledge. And let me tell you, if you have
faith, you're assured. And if you're not assured, I'll
tell you where you're looking. You're looking elsewhere than
Christ. You simply are. People who talk about, I just
can't find assurance, it's because they're looking for assurance.
You can't look for assurance. Assurance is a by-product of
seeing Jesus Christ. He said the Gospel came to you
and convinced you by the Holy Ghost that everything Christ
said He did, He did. And He accomplished. And it makes
you just sure that you're a child of God. Faith and knowledge produce works,
however. But they are both matters of
the mind. The effect of having faith and
assurance will cause you to labor in love and patience and hope
and wait for Christ and take care of the brethren and preach
the gospel. But none of those things are examples or can really
be put as proof of your election. Now how did Paul know that these
were elect? I think Paul knew it in light
of something that would suggest that their assurance, their salvation,
their election was seemingly miraculous. Miraculous. It seems that he speaks of things
they do as miraculous in light of a certain fact. And I want
you to notice something here. Generally speaking, when I've
read this passage, and I've preached from it 40 or 50 times probably, Maybe that's not too much over
a 30-year period, but I've preached from it 40 or 50 times, probably
from this passage of Scripture at least, quoted it, and I've
read it several times, and it wasn't until I began to study
it this week that I saw that I had not really paid attention
to a couple of things that Paul said right here that are very
important, and I believe really shed light on the fact that how
he knows that these are the elect of God. Look at verse 5. Look at the
last phrase. After he says, for our gospel
came not in word only, but also in power and the Holy Ghost and
much assurance, he says, As you know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake. Well, that seems strange. What's
he talking about? But that's right in there with it, ain't
it? As you know. As you know. And that's something
to do with him understanding and knowing that they were the
elect of God. Him and Timothy and Silvanus.
They knew. They knew. Then in verse 9, he
speaks of what manner of entrance he had among them. Look at it.
For they themselves show us what manner of entering, entering
in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve
the living and the true and living God. For they themselves show
of us what manner of entering in. Paul is talking about a manner
of doing something. a way of doing something, the
way that he did it, and Silvanus did it, and Timothy did it, it
makes him know that these folks were elect. He is saying that
the manner of their preaching could not bring about such a
wondrous knowledge as knowing they were elect. couldn't bring about such a wondrous
reaction. The manner of their preaching,
the way they preached and behaved among them was not conducive
for anyone to follow them, and yet he said, you followed me.
What he's talking about is in opposition, what they did, he
looks at what he did and said, I couldn't have had anything
to do with this. That's why he's saying, I know you're elect,
because all these things didn't come from me. Do you know what
manner of man I was before? Do you know the manner of my
speaking? It's as if he's saying that all this wonderful reaction
to the gospel was in spite of the manner of men that were among
them. in order to understand what he
is talking about, in order to understand how he truly knew
that they were elect, is that the manner in which they preached
and lived among these people was contrary to any accepted
norm, any way that might cause men to naturally follow them
and believe what they preached. That is what he is saying. Let
me show you what I am talking about. Look at chapter 2. For yourselves,
brethren, know our entrance into you, that it was not in vain. But even after that we had suffered
before and were shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we were
bold in God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. In other words, when they got
there, things weren't going that well in the matter of preaching
the gospel. You know, most people, the world believes, religion
believes, that unless you've got a huge church or unless you've
got new members coming in all the time, people getting saved
as they say, You can't really be a gospel church. I've had
preachers look me right in the face and say, how many you got?
And I say, well, I've never counted. I'm afraid to number Israel.
God liable to punish me for numbering Israel unless I got an atonement
prize for every one of them. How many you got? I say, I've
got all I'm supposed to have. How many you got? More than I
deserve. How many you got? I don't know. And I don't know
today. I could not tell you how many people we have in this assembly.
I can tell you about all their names, but I ain't never counting
them up on my fingers. But that's what the world says.
So why in the world are y'all here? Why in the world are y'all here?
There's much contention. The world says y'all ought to
be doing well if you're preaching the gospel. Paul says, Everywhere
I went it was just a fist fight. Everywhere I went it was just
a fist fight. Look at verse 3 and 4. Paul says, 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 strieth our hearts. He
said we didn't have an ulterior motive. We weren't looking for
something. Is that the way preaching is
today? Is that where religion is today? People are always looking
for something. Show me. Show me that you are
a child of God. Paul said, I wasn't looking for
nothing. I was just preaching to God. I wasn't trying to please
you. I was trying to please God. We didn't use psychology or deceive,
speaking peace when there was no peace. God had entrusted us
with the gospel and we did not try to please men or get men
to do something. We did not beg. We did not conjure.
We did not pressure men. We, in truth, did not involve
ourselves with results. And let me tell you this as clear
as I can. The preaching of the gospel,
if we read it in scripture, the men that preached the gospel
of the third sermons they preached, they never, ever once pushed
anybody to do anything, or even asked them to do anything. You
read the message at Pentecost. You know, people talk about Pentecost,
the power of Pentecost, and Pentecost, the power, you read the message
at Pentecost. The last words of Peter, after
he had said all he needed to say concerning the Old Testament
speaking about Jesus Christ, he said, ìThis same Jesus, whom
you crucified, God hath made both Lord and Christ.î ìNow letís
stand and sing just as I am.î Is that what he did? He shut
up. And then men, somehow, were pricked
in their hearts. Who did that? They were pricked in their hearts,
and they asked, men and brethren, what should
we do? We've killed the King of Glory. Somebody's accountable
for that. Somebody's got to account. What
am I going to do? Repent and believe, he said. Receive the
remission of sin, because sins have already been remitted, is
actually what he said. The Gospel, listen very carefully,
is not really about results. It's going to get its results.
That's ordained. The gospel is about the glory
of God. It's about glorifying Him. And I'll tell you what happens
when God is glorified. The elect are saved. That's what
happens. You say, well, don't you have
no zeal for those who are lost? Yeah, I do. Well, what are you
going to do? I'm going to do the one thing,
the only thing, that if there are lost sheep that will bring
them into the fold, that's to declare the glory of the salvation
wrought by Jesus Christ to honor His Father in justice, righteousness,
mercy, and law. And when one of the sheep hears
that, they say, that sounds like the voice of my Savior. And when those who aren't sheep
hear it, they say, We'll hear this matter another day. We'll
hear this matter another day. Paul said, I don't beg you, I
don't control you, and I don't press you. Well, how do you get
anything done? I don't get anything done. He said, we're interested in
pleasing God. We're interested in glorifying God. That's what
we're here for, to please God, to glorify God, to speak well
of His Son, to talk about the things that really please Him.
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him.
Speak of Him. We do not use deceitful means.
We speak of Christ. We talk of Christ. We just keep
telling people about Christ over and over again. Because we know
that's the only way we can really glorify God and honor Him for
what He's done for us in His Son. Verse 6, it says this back
in our text, Nor of men sought we glory. Neither of you nor
yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles
of Christ, we might have laid some heavy burdens on you. We
might have. He says we weren't looking for
men to speak well of us. We didn't approach in some authority
seeking to hold advantage over you or control you. We probably
could have. We could have stood up and said, Look, I'm an apostle
of Christ. You're going to listen to me or you're in trouble. I'm
the man that God sent. You've got to listen to me because
I'm the man that God sent. God's men don't talk like that. You know, people can and will
follow authority. They will. If there's an authoritative
figure, he can be telling the biggest lie in the world, people
will fall in behind him. Old Nick Bradley used to say,
if a man can get on a white horse and talk good and come down the
middle of Cherokee, he'll have a congregation before he gets
down the first stoplight. We don't express our authority.
The pastor has authority. He does rule over the house of
God. But He's also the servant of the house of God and belongs
to the house of God. He's all those things. He rules in spiritual
matters. He serves in all other matters.
And He belongs to the people of God. He's theirs. Paul said,
We're yours. We're yours. He said, We don't
want to make you do anything. What kind of preaching is that?
We don't want to make you do anything. He said, We didn't want to make
you do anything. Ask anything of you. Well, you've got to preach,
you've got to... I don't want you to do anything. I hope something's done to you.
I pray God will take this gospel and plant it in your heart. And
then something's done to you and all this stuff that will
come from you because of that which is done to you. I'd love
to see that. But I'm telling you, if it don't
happen, to God be the glory, great things He has done. Verse 9 says this. Verse 7 says, But we were gentle
among you, gentle among you, even as an earth cherishes her
children. We were gentle. We sought to
comfort you. We cherished you as an earth
cherishes her children, loving you the only way we knew how,
by telling you the truth. So being affectionately desirous
of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel
only, but also our own souls, because you were dear to us. You were dear to us. We required nothing of you. Offered you nothing. Took nothing
from you. Why? Because you're dear to us.
They're dear to us. So we preach the gospel to you.
We told you of the glory of God and the salvation of sinners
by the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where
would religion be today if they did not require things from men? Where would all these TV preachers
be without the idea of seed faith? You've got to give that ten percent. You've got to give that seed.
God won't bless you. And the preacher stands up and
says, I don't want anything from you. You don't have to do anything. Sit
where you are. Relax. Enjoy. Love Christ and
do as you please. The legalist says, oh, don't
talk like that. That will open up the floodgates of sin. They're
already open, folks. If you don't know that about
yourself, you don't know anything about yourself. Do as you please. If you love
Christ, do as you please. I'm not worried about you. I'm
really not worried about you. Come peeking in your window to
see what you're doing. I don't want to know what you're doing.
Many years ago, you remember Bill, back when you first started
coming here many years ago? Bill had been under a pastor
who had controlled their lives completely. I mean he controlled,
told them what kind of cars to buy, what kind of motorcycles
to buy. He even told one man to have all his teeth pulled
out because he had a toothache. And he did, he had all his teeth
pulled out. That kind of control over them. And they had the men
treat their wives badly, didn't they? It was kind of a thing
you had to do. He had all the men come over
to his house. They'd take up a collection on
Sunday night and go out and get pizza and beer. Is that right?
Am I telling a lie? He always had these men around
him. He was always telling them what to do and what not to do.
And Bill came over here and started hearing the gospel. And he was
standing right outside in front of the trailer one day. And he said,
There's something I've got to ask you, Pastor. Do you require
us to come over all the time? I said, don't ever come over.
Unless I ask you to stay at home with your family. We don't require anything of
you. God commands you to believe and to repent. But I don't require
that of you. I can't require it of you. God
requires it of you. And listen, what He requires
of you, He'll give to you if you're His. He'll give to you. What Paul is saying here when
he talks about this manner, he's saying that what we did, we preached
the gospel and none of it would make anyone follow us. We did
it in a manner, you know, we were gentle, we didn't ask anything
of anybody, we didn't push anybody, we didn't control anybody, we
didn't require anything. And that was not conducive to
getting people to follow you, is it? He says, so if you followed
us, it must have been of God and
not of us. The faith you have, the love
of the gospel, you can not attribute to us. It didn't come from us. Our devices, our talent, our
authority, These things can only be attributed to the Gospel coming
to you in power. Because you know what manner
of men we were. You know what our manner of entrance
is. I know you are elect because
what has taken place with you must be of God and not of men. It must be of God. And that's not the only place
He said it that way. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter
2. We'll close on this. Take us a little sandwich break
and then come back for an afternoon message. 1 Corinthians chapter
2. Listen to what Paul said. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech or of human wisdom
when I declared to you the testimony of God, which is the gospel.
I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and much trembling. My speech and my preaching was
not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and the power. Why? That your faith should not
stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. He said
exactly the same things to the church at Thessalonica. You know
what I was. You know how I preached. You
know what I did and didn't do. You saw what I was like. And
yet you believe. I know you're elect. I know you're
elect. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse
5, For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and
ourselves your servants, for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
dirt pots. Why? Why is it put in this These
characters, these men that tremble and are weak and stumble and
stutter with stammering lips and another tongue, weak and
frail, why does he use that? That the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. So if indeed you are, brought
to a knowledge of Christ. You can't blame the preacher.
You're going to have to blame God. You're going to have to
blame God. So he says, Knowing, brethren,
beloved, your election of God, for our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and the Holy Ghost, and
in much assurance, as you know, what manner of men we are among
you, for your sake. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen. Got coffee?