This morning's service with hymn
number 70, which is in your hardbacked hymnal. Number 70 in the hardbacked
hymnal. Holy, holy, holy is our Lord. Let's all stand together. Number
70. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning Our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy,
holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Jerobim and Seraphim falling
down before thee, Word and art, and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see, There is none beside thee perfect
in power, in love and joy. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name In earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be in First Thessalonians
chapter two. this first hour this morning. That's a wonderful hymn we just
sang. When Isaiah saw the Lord in Isaiah chapter 6 high and
lifted up, and the seraphims hovering over the throne of God
crying, holy, holy, holy. The importance of That is, as
we just sang, God the Father's holy, God the Son's holy, God
the Holy Spirit's holy. Holiness is who they are. And
in addition to that, our Lord often uses repetition in his
word for emphasis. How many times do we read in
the gospel accounts where the Lord says, truly, truly, I say
unto thee." He's emphasizing the importance of about what's
about to be said. And I don't know of a place in
the Bible where repetition is brought to the third level except
in Isaiah 6. Holy, holy, holy. Which the Lord is revealing to
us the absolute necessity and importance of His
holiness. Let's go before Him in prayer,
ask His blessings on this time together. Our merciful Heavenly
Father, we come before Thy throne of grace, in the holy name of
thy dear son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Lord, we thank you that we can
come with confidence, not in ourselves, but confident that
he was successful in accomplishing everything that you required
for our salvation, that he actually put away all the sins of all
thy people, that he established a righteousness that was acceptable
in thy sight and that we come into thy holy presence accepted
in the beloved Our Heavenly Father, we pray that you would send your
Holy, Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts, to reveal to us thy
glory, to cause us to believe you, to trust you. Lord, we We thank you for the conviction
of sin, and we ask, Lord, that you would give us the grace to
rest our hope in Christ for all of our forgiveness. We ask it in his name. Amen. 1 Thessalonians 2, at verse and we'll try to just make this
one verse our text this morning. As you know, how we exhorted
and comforted and charged every one of you as a father doth his
children. The apostle Paul is encouraging
the church to persevere in what he had taught them, reminding
them of how he spoke the truth to them in love. And that's the
title of this message, Speaking the Truth in Love. I want you to notice with me
three words in the verse that we just read. The first word
is exhorting. The second word is comforted. And the third word is charged. This word to exhort means to
identify with the Apostle Paul believed himself to be the chief
of all sinners. And when he taught the church
in Thessalonica, he did not teach them in an overbearing or condescending
way. He came along beside them and
sympathized with them. He empathized with them as one
of them. And so in speaking the truth
in love, we are reminded here of who the apostle Paul's identifying
himself as when he taught them. The word comforted means to speak
from the heart. And so he's reminding them that
when he taught them, he taught them in love. So he taught them
as one of them, a sinner saved by grace, and he taught them
in the spirit of love. And then thirdly, the word charged
is a reference to the truth. And so basically what Paul's
reminding the church of is, I taught you the truth in love as a fellow
sinner. That's what every father wants
to identify himself with his children as. And he says, as a father doth
his children, I hope this morning the Lord will encourage us on
how we ought to speak the truth in love. I want to preach to
you like this. I want to preach to you as a
fellow sinner. I want to preach to you in a
spirit of love. And I want to preach to you the
uncompromised truth of the gospel. And this is the spirit in which
we ought to speak always, isn't it? To one another. And the pattern
for this type of speech is the way our heavenly father speaks
to us. Speaking the truth in love. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
four. Ephesians chapter four. Verse 14, that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie
in wait to deceive. Now, the verses before this verse
The Lord tells us that he has given to his church prophets and apostles and pastors
and teachers for the edifying of the church, for the building
up of the church, for the work of the ministry, for the glory
of God. And so if the Lord is pleased
to enable us to speak to one another this way and to preach
this way, it will result in us no longer being children tossed
to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but we'll be settled in the truth
because we've heard the truth from a reputable source and we've
confirmed the truth by the Spirit of God and by the Word of God. Look at verse 15, but speaking
the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ. You see, there's a connection
between the way in which we speak and what we speak and growing
up in Christ. From whom? The whole body is
fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part
making increase of the body into the edifying of itself in love. I was thinking about Aria Rose
who was just born into this world Wednesday and and how the body of a child grows. The growth of a child, from the
way I understand it, happens in the joints. That's why oftentimes
when children are going through a growth spurt, they will have
aching joints because the growth plates are in the joints and
that's where the bone expands in the joint. And so the Lord
is using the body to liken the body of Christ. Where do we grow in grace and
in the knowledge of Christ? Where bone meets bone. In the
joints. As we fellowship in Christ one
with another and as we fellowship in him, that's where the growth
takes place, in the joint. May God give us the grace to
speak the truth to one another in love. that the body of Christ
might be edified and might grow up together in the likeness of
Christ. That's what Paul's saying to
this church in Thessalonica. You remember he'd only been there
three weeks and he was run out of town. And he's now in Athens
writing a letter back to them and expressing his affection
to them and reminding them of the spirit in which he taught
them. and encouraging them to persevere
in this exhorting and comforting and charging. How important our manner of speech
is. Sometimes it's not just what
we say, but it's how we say it, isn't it? But turn with me to James chapter
three. James chapter three, I think
it would be, in light of this subject, it would be good for
us just to read what the Lord tells us about the tongue. And how how powerful this little member
of our body is. We'll begin reading in verse
six of James chapter three. And the tongue is a fire, a world
of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members
that it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course
of nature and is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast
and the birds and serpents and things in the sea is tamed and
have been tamed of mankind, but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of
deadly poison. No man can tame his own tongue. The Lord's tongue was perfectly
tamed and only he can tame ours. Only he can tame ours. We are
as dependent upon him to tame our tongue that we are for everything. We've all had enough experience
in saying things we wish we wouldn't have said to know that our tongue
is an unruly member of our body. Wars have been caused by words. Relationships have been fractured
over words. We teach our children sticks
and tones will break our bones, but words will never harm us.
That's not true. You know, it's not true. It is
not true. We say that to our children to
try to encourage them when they, when someone says something ugly
to them, but words are hurtful. Verse nine, therefore, bless
we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which
are made after the somnitude of God out of the same mouth,
proceeded blessings and cursing. My brethren, these things ought
not to be so. Let the fountains send forth
the same place, sweet water and bitter. Can a fig tree, my brethren,
bear olive berries, either of vine figs, So can no fountain
yield both salt water and fresh? Who is a wise man and endued
with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation
his works with meekness and wisdom. And if you have bitter envying
and strife in your hearts, glory not, lie not against the truth.
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual,
and devilish. And where envying and strife
is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that
is from above is first pure, then peaceable. gentle, easy
to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality
and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace to them that make peace. May God make us to
be peacemakers by what we say and how we say
it. Go back with me to our text in
1 Thessalonians chapter two. I said that there were three
words in this verse I want us to look at. The first one tells
us who Paul considers himself to be when he said exhorted,
exhorted. To exhort means to identify with,
it means to sympathize with, it means to empathize with, it
means to come along beside you as a fellow sinner. Might we
be reminded of that, who we are when we speak to one another?
There's never a spirit of condescension when a man believes himself to
be a sinner. He doesn't look at another and
think that, you know, like the publican, the Pharisee, I'm sorry,
Father, I thank thee that I'm not like other men, especially
that publican over there. That's such self-righteousness,
isn't there? Such pride and arrogance and
that sort of, you see, this manner of speech begins with who we
believe ourselves to be. I don't wanna hear a man preaching
to me. And I've listened to men preach
before and come away from it thinking, well, if I was more
like him, I wouldn't have the problems I have. You know, just such. There's
no sense in which this man is speaking from his own experience
as a sinner to me. Paul is saying to them, I came
along beside you and exhorted you because I remembered who
I was. And he says, as a father doth
his children. You know, father is one of the
worst things we can say to our children when they do something
wrong is how could you have done that? How could you have done
that? It's the worst thing you can
say. You see, it puts that child in such
a position of, you know, I'm now an exception to everybody
else and I've done something that no one else would have done.
I'll tell you how they could have done it. They could have
done it the same way you did it and the same way you continue
to do it. You know, might we be reminded when we come to our
children not to say, you know, how could you have done that?
But no, I understand. I sometimes do a lot of things
that are foolish as well. But let me tell you the truth
about it. And it doesn't mean that you're
exempted from correction. It doesn't mean that you're not
going to be punished for this. But it does mean that I understand. what you're doing, and why you're
doing it. I can identify with it, because
I'm the same way you are. And that's what Paul's saying
about exhorting. When we speak to one another,
might we be reminded of who we are? That'll solve a lot of problems,
a whole lot of problems. You know, when a person goes
through a particular trial in life, they want to talk to somebody
that's been through the same experience, don't they? Don't you? Someone who can't
identify with what you're going through is not going to be of
much help to you. But a person who's gone through
a similar experience, whatever it might be, a traumatic experience,
You wanna talk to somebody that's been there and done that. That's
what Paul's saying. I spoke to you the truth in love
because I could identify with you. Now, Hebrews chapter four,
you have to turn to me here. This is so glorious because this is exactly what
our Lord is saying. to us when we come to Him and when
He rebukes us and when He corrects us and when He chastises us.
He doesn't do it in a condescending way. He doesn't do it in a way
that He understands. Oh, what He suffered on Calvary's
cross was all the shame and all the sorrow and all the justice
and judgment for sin beyond anything that we've ever experienced before. Isn't that the real problem with
our sin? Is the shame associated with
it and the embarrassment and the sorrow that's associated
with it? You say, well, the Lord never committed a sin. No, he didn't. He bore our sins in his body
upon that tree and God made him sin for us that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him, but it was the consequences of
sin that he experienced. The sorrow of sin, the shame
of sin, the suffering for sin, that he experienced infinitely
in a way that you and I don't know anything about. in a way
that actually satisfied what God required for the penalty
of sin. So when we come before him as
a sinner, he says to us, I understand, child. I've had that experience
far greater than anything you know anything about. And so that's
why we read in Hebrews chapter four, for we have not a high
priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in our time of need. We can come with confidence. This word boldly means that we
come with confidence that he understands. I exhorted you. I came along beside you. Look
at verse one of chapter five. For every high priest taken from
among men is ordained of men in things pertaining to God that
he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. Who can, he's talking
about these Old Testament priests, who can have compassion on the
ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that he himself
also is compassed with infirmities. So these priests that offered
up sacrifices in the Old Testament had to make sacrifice for themselves
first before they can make sacrifice for the people. And by reason thereof, he ought,
as for the people, so also for himself to offer sacrifices for
sins. And no man taketh this honor
on himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron, so also. Look at verse five. So also Christ
glorified not himself to be made high priest, but he that said
unto him, thou art my son, today I begotten thee, as he also in
another place said, thou art a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek, who in the days of his flesh when he had offered
up prayers and supplications with strong cryings and tears
unto him that is able to save him from death, and was heard
in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey him." What is our Lord? He's telling
us. I'm exhorted, I understand. Come. Come, I'm not here to say to
you, why did you do that? I know why you did it. I experienced
the fullness of why you did it. And so the Lord comes to us as one who's able to exhort alongside
sinners because he knows what sin is. Second word, comforted, comforted. We can't think of that without
thinking about Isaiah chapter 40 when the Lord told the prophet
Isaiah, comfort ye, comfort ye. There we end, before we have
repetition, don't we, the importance of this. Comfort ye, speak ye
comfortably. You know, I just realized there's
three references to comfort there in one verse. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem. Speak from the
heart to the people of God. Speak out of love for them and
tell them their warfare is accomplished. Tell them their iniquity is purged,
it's been put away. Tell them that they've received
a double blessing for their sin. Tell them that Christ became
sin for them, that they might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Child of God, when we speak to
each other, we need to remember, first of all, who we are. I pray
that you'll help me pray for that spirit as I preach to you. Secondly, we need to speak in
a spirit of love, comfort. What is love? Is love not having the interest
of the one being loved above one's own? Let me ask you a question. Is
there anyone in this world, regardless of what your relationship might
be with them or how strained it might be or how difficult
it is, is there anyone in this world that you would not rejoice
for God to pour out a spirit of grace on them and give them
blessings that you don't know anything about? Draw them into
His presence more than He's ever drawn you into His presence. I can't think of a person I wouldn't
rejoice for that to happen to. For God to give grace and salvation
and light and truth and love and mercy to someone else more
than He's even given to me. Someone asked me if I loved a certain person.
I said, well, honestly, if that what I just said is love, I can't
think of a person I don't love. I want for them and would rejoice
for them and in them blessings beyond anything I know anything
about. Is that not love, having the
interest of another above your own? Greater love hath no man than
this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Is that not
the love that the Lord gave to us, rejected of his Father? Suffered the full wrath of the
justice of God? Plunged into the depths of darkness
and hell? What for? For the blessings of
God to be poured out upon his people. There's love. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us. and gave his Son
to be the propitiation of our sins. That's love. Might we have a spirit of love
when we speak to one another? I think I told you all this once
before, I remember preaching about Nathan confronting David
years ago. When Nathan said to David, thou
art the man, and revealed, exposed David's sin with Bathsheba and
Uriah. And I made the mistake of saying
that I can just see Nathan putting his finger in David's chest and
saying, David, don't you see that you're the man? Oh, I don't
believe that at all. That was wrong for me to say
such a thing. I can see now Nathan's eyes welled
up with tears and in a shuddering voice saying to David, David,
don't you know that you're the man I'm talking about? When the Lord looked at Peter
that night, he didn't look at him. with, I told you so. He didn't roll his eyes or have
a condescending spirit toward Peter after Peter had denied
him publicly three times with cursing. And our Lord locked
eyes with Peter after being scourged. And he's walking across that
area where Peter was and Peter sees him and he sees Peter. And the scripture says that Peter
went out of the place and wept bitterly. He wept bitterly. Why did Peter weep bitterly?
Because the Lord looked at him saying, how could you have done
such a thing? No, because the Lord spoke to
him with his eyes in love, in love. And thirdly, thirdly, the Lord
speaks to us. He comes along beside exhorting
us and encouraging us because he knows what sin is. He comforts us in love, having
our best interest at heart. And for many, that's all they're
looking for. For many, they just want sympathy
and affection. But for the child of God, that's
not enough. That's not enough. I need to
know that what you're saying to me, not only are you saying
it from a sympathetic and affectionate heart, but I need to know that
it's the truth. And that's the third word in
our text. Look at it. He exhorted and he
comforted and he charged every one of them. He told them the truth. In a verse just before this,
he said, I'm thankful that when you received the word, you received
it not as a word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of
God. I listened to a man last night
preach a message titled, what is the gospel? What is the gospel? This is a man, if I mentioned
his name, everybody here would know him. This is a man I used
to highly esteem. I thought that he was what I
wanted to be. And so I went online and listened
to a message he preached on what is the gospel. 43 minutes, he never answered
that question. Never answered it. He rebuked. the false prophets for not telling
the truth. And he spoke in a lot of platitudes
about Jesus being the son of God. And he referenced Romans
chapter one, the gospel of God. This is God's gospel. We don't
have the right to play with it. We don't have the right to adjust
it. It's God's gospel. We must preach it as it is. He
went to Galatians chapter one, And he warned his audience about
preaching something other than the gospel. Let them be accursed
if any man come unto you and preach any other gospel than
the one I preach. And essentially he said the gospel is that Jesus
Christ is the son of God and he died on Calvary's cross to
atone for sin. And that was his identification
of the gospel. And this is a man who teaches
diligently total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement,
irresistible grace, and never mentioned any of them in a sermon
titled, What is the Gospel? He was talking to an audience
that would not have appreciated those things. And he'll stand before God for
not telling them the truth. He never mentioned the sovereignty
of God, though he wrote a book on the sovereignty of God. He never mentioned the fact that
God in his sovereign electing grace chose a particular people
according to his own will and purpose before time ever was.
He never mentioned that the Lord Jesus Christ, when he died to
atone for sins, that he atoned for particular sins of those
whom God had chosen. That not one drop of his blood
was wasted, that he actually successfully accomplished the
salvation of the people that he came to save. He never said
that. He never said. that grace was
irresistible, that when the Spirit of God takes the message of the
gospel and applies it effectually to the hearts of God's elect,
that they will not be able to resist it, that he will make
them willing in the day of his power. You see, just in the last two
or three minutes, I preached to you the gospel, told you the
truth. And this man, We need to know that who's speaking
to us, whether it be a man or God, he understands by experience
what we're going through. We need to know that whoever's
speaking to us is speaking to us out of a heart of love for
our best interest and not for his own. whether it be God or
man. And we need to know that what
men speak is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And that is speaking the truth
in Bible. Let's take a break.