Well, Paul says finally, finally. This word finally signals the
closing of this letter that he's writing to the church in Thessalonica. And in this last part, the 18
verses that we read, Paul deals with a couple of problems in
the church. And in this request, he begins with a request for
prayer. And in this request, we see the
difference between God's preacher and a false preacher. And we
see the difference between God's people and this world's religion. And it's not so much a difference
between one person and another. I don't want us to think of it
that way. It's a difference that God makes. It's something that
God does differently with his sheep. He did say, I've put a
difference between you and the people of this world. I've put
a difference. Paul doesn't ask here for more
support or an easier road. You know, pray that there wouldn't
be so many afflictions. He went through a lot as he details
in one letter that he wrote. He doesn't ask for anything selfish
at all. And this is God's doing. Because you see the contrast
right away between this and those who are not God's preachers. What actually characterizes the
religion of this world? Money, money, money. With man's religion, it's all
about always expanding their religious empire. Personal gain
is equated with God's blessing. If you're not personally prosperous
in earthly things, then God's not blessing you. That's nonsense. That's anti-Christ is what it
is. Because God's people don't look at blessings in material
things. Our blessing is Christ. God hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places, where? In Christ Jesus. Not in this world, not in the
things of this world. It's just different and it's
a difference that God makes in it. Don't compare one person
to another, compare the grace of God with what it looks like
when God doesn't have grace. And thank God for grace. Thank
him for grace. There's a reason why the Lord
mentioned the two particulars that he did when he said, you
cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon is money or earthly gain.
There's a reason why those two are the two that are mentioned there. And
you see it in everything that's called worship in this world
of God. Look what Paul does, what was
he concerned with? This is grace now. We're talking
about grace. We're not talking about somebody
that's just a little more spiritual than somebody else, or somebody
that's decided better and made better choices. We're talking
about grace. If we're not selfish, and if
we're not envious of this world, if we're
not covetous, it's because of the grace of God, because that's
our nature. You cannot serve God and mammon.
You're gonna serve one or the other, and you're gonna hate
the other one. Isn't that interesting the way
he says that? It's not you're gonna serve one and kind of put
up, you're gonna hate the other one. You're gonna discount it. But what was Paul concerned with
here? Pray for me that when I preach,
the gospel may have free course. Isn't that beautiful? And you
see, the Lord said where your treasure is, that's where your
heart is gonna be. What's this world's treasure?
Even in what they call their spiritual things, what is that?
It's a mansion in heaven and golden streets and a whole gate's
made out of one pearl, you know, and it's gonna be luxury up there. Paul said, I have a desire to
depart and be with Christ, which is far better. What's better
about glory than this is that we're gonna be with him. But even, in all religions of
this world, what is it that, where is their heart? Oh, you're
gonna have a thousand virgins. Where did that come from? It's always something to do with
the flesh, isn't it? Always. The gospel makes one promise
to us and it makes everything else seem foolish, doesn't it?
When the promise of the gospel is we're gonna be with him and
like him. Paul said, I'm gonna be absent
from this body and what? living in my mansion on Glory
Lane? No, with Christ, with Christ. Do you love him that much? Where's
your heart? Whatever is valuable, whatever
is treasure to you, that's where your heart's gonna be. Paul's
heart, he knew what was valuable in this world. You know, religion
talking about, oh, you know, the scriptures here say you can
be prosperous, pray this prayer, pray, You know, repeat this prayer,
and the Lord will send you a bunch
of money. There'll just be some money appearing. Do you see how
vain that is? If you do, it's grace. What Paul realized was precious
and valuable and vital and important and necessary in this life. The
treasure to Paul was this, that the gospel go forth as it ought
to, with boldness and clarity, and that it be free from any
restraint of this flesh. God uses earthen vessels, but
there ain't no flesh in his gospel, is there? Pray for that. There
would be, wasn't there? Why do you think Paul said, I
didn't come to you with enticing words of man's wisdom? Because
that's the way most so-called preachers come. He wasn't whistling
Dixie when he said that. The false preachers of this world's
Antichrist freewill religion is what? To get you to do something
for God. Walk an aisle, say a prayer,
dedicate your life. The prayer of God's preachers
is that God would do something for you. And the way he has said
he will do that is by the preaching of the gospel. It pleased God
by the foolishness of this right here to save them that believe. That's what's important. That's
the treasure that's in this world. Pray for that. that the gospel, here's what
that word means, the language, the original Greek here says
this, that the gospel might run as in a race to exert oneself,
to strive hard, to give oneself to attaining something. Paul
said, I'm not as one that just beat at the air. We're not shadow
boxing here. This is business. The Lord Jesus said, I must be
about my father's business. What was the father's business?
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. His commission to us is go into
this world and preach the gospel. And whoever believes you, I'll
save them. And whoever don't, I'll damn them. You know, you might've heard
Gospel preachers or a believer in the gospel pray this way in
praying for a preacher. They might, you know, if it depended,
you know, one of the gospel preachers, Todd or Greg or Moose or one
of the gospel preachers, they're praying for him or they're praying
for themselves. And they might say this, Lord, give me freedom.
Give me freedom to preach the gospel. You ever wonder what
they mean by that? What exactly? Does that mean? That's a scriptural prayer. Turn
with me to Acts chapter four. Verse 27. Acts 4, 27. "'For of a truth against thy
holy child Jesus, "'whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and
Pontius Pilate, "'with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, "'were
gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand "'and thy counsel determined
before to be done. "'And now, Lord, behold their
threatenings, "'and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness
"'they may speak thy word. by stretching forth thine hand
to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy
holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the
place was shaken where they were assembled together. And they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word
of God with boldness." That word is in that brief passage twice,
boldness, boldness. What does that word mean? In
the original Greek, it means freedom. You see why we pray
that way? Freedom in speaking, unreservedness
in speech, open, frankly, frankly. Remember when Paul said, I've
provided things open and honest before all men, nothing to hide,
nothing to hide in the gospel. Now, religion has a lot to hide.
They'll hide all the stuff that people don't wanna hear. Like
God is God and you're not. Well, everybody knows that. Nobody
knows that. Except those who God has saved and given them
their right mind. The word bowl is open, frankly,
without concealment. What did Paul say? And why would
he say this? I've held nothing back. I've declared unto you the whole
counsel of God. Why would he say that? Because
those who are not preachers of the gospel, those who God didn't
send, what do they do? They conceal, they hold back.
They'll pick out little parts that they like and preach from
those instead of going verse by verse by verse. They can't
do that. If their life depended on it,
they wouldn't do that. Free and fearless confidence. Confidence. May the gospel be
made to run by those means, the bold, free, uncomplicated, unmixed,
unrestrained preaching of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.
That's the prayer of God's people. When you pray
for me, pray for that. Because nothing else is valuable.
Nothing else matters, does it? Look, I want to be happy in this
life. I want to live and be comfortable and all that. But what matters,
what counts is what God's doing. And He can do what He's doing
without any of that. He has done it through the years,
through the centuries, without any of that. Notice in the passage we read
how that it was when the gospel had been opposed and threats
were made and their very lives were threatened and pressure
was put on them not to preach with boldness, that they especially
prayed for boldness. If you just mix it with works,
if you just compromise it, if you just say that the grace of
God can be had by counting some beads or by getting some wretched,
vile, sinful imposter to pray for you. People like that. People are
fine with that, they can feel good about that. Oh, that happened,
that physical, meaningless thing happened, now I'm right with
God. No, you're not. No man comes to the Father but by his Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And they were granted boldness
in preaching. That's what they prayed for. Lord, give it, let
us preach what they despise so much, they'll kill us for it.
Let us preach it without constraint, without concealment. Give us
boldness, give us freedom in speaking, no matter how much
they hate it. Give us the grace to make it
clear. Let's show them what they hate us for. Maybe peradventure,
God will give them repentance. He's not gonna use a lie to save
sinners, you reckon? Said he wouldn't. The very things that we need
to make clear in this world and preach without concealment are
the truths that sinners by nature hate the most. What you most
need to hear is something that your old fleshly nature doesn't
like. And I'm not talking about man-made
doctrinal statements, I'm talking about the simple truth of God
in the Word. The simple truth that God is
God. Be still and know that I am God. Beside Him there is none else.
The simple truth that God is sovereign, that's what God means.
We shouldn't even have to put the, qualifier sovereign on that. If you're talking about God,
of course, he does all, he doeth after the counsel of his own
will in the armies of heaven, among the inhabitants of this
earth, none can stay his hand or even question him. Of course it's sovereign grace,
it's God's grace. that man's works, especially
religious ones, are sin, all of them, all of them. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing, not one thing, no thing. That Christ is all of a sinner's
righteousness or he doesn't have any. It's not, well, you know,
you go this far, you fall short a little bit and Christ makes
up the rest. No, he is the Lord, our righteousness. We don't have
any other. We don't have any righteousness of our own. Paul
said, I abandoned all of my heritage and all of my works, all of my
law keeping and all of that and pressed toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God. And that's in Christ. To
the exclusion of me and all that I am or ever was or ever will
be. that Christ is all of our righteousness,
or we don't have any righteousness, that Christ accomplished exactly
and completely what he died on Calvary to accomplish, the salvation of his people. That salvation is his perfect,
miraculous, supernatural work. You must be born again. What'd you have to do with being
born? You personally, what did you have to do with being born? If you're going to be born again,
that's just exactly how much you're going to have to do with
it. You know what I had to do with being born? It happened
to me. God made it happen. You know what happened when I
was born again? It happened to me. God made it
happen. God did it. He could have said you've got
a big decision to make, couldn't he? That's not what he said. He said you must be born again. Salvation is a person and as
our Lord explained so clearly to his disciples, with men, it
is impossible. Who can be saved, they asked
him. With men, it's impossible. God's got to do it. With God,
all things are possible. This is the offense of the gospel.
And here's also a great difference between the believers and those
that worship themselves and call it religion. But listen, the
offense of the gospel, there's a big difference between a gospel
preacher and a false preacher. And this is the most important
thing. The false preacher will do the opposite of the definition
of boldness in our text. They'll do the opposite of that.
Boldness means without concealment. But what do false preachers do?
I've told you this many times, but somebody I worked with, They
had a Bible study, you know, for people at work. You know, my first thought was,
why would I, they invited me to it. I thought, why would I
eat at McDonald's when I can eat steak? You know, even if
you're telling the truth, I mean, the Lord has given me a gospel
preacher. But they were in the book of
Romans. They were going through the book of Romans study. And
he said, why don't you come listen to this? I said, I tell you what,
when you get to Romans chapter nine, let me know and I'll be
there. About a year later, I asked him,
have you got to Romans nine yet? He said, well, we quit Romans.
We're in another book now. I'm like, okay, I get it. I get
it. And it ain't about Romans nine.
That's just where, you know what I'm saying. It's everything in
the scripture. It's everything. Somebody, we were listening to
a message on the way here and somebody quoted that scripture. Set them
free. Set the captives free. I found
a ransom. And I thought, you know, that's the truth of the
gospel right there. The one who has the power to
give freedom is the one who found the ransom. They didn't come
with a ransom. They didn't come up with one. God said, I found
one. I've got a ransom for you. You're
free. It's all, it's the whole word.
It's all scripture. They conceal the truth that men
hate because they're not gonna be successful otherwise. They're
not gonna be profitable in the flesh. They do it for selfish
reasons. Paul's prayer revealed that Paul by God's grace was
not selfish. In this thing of the ministry
for the gospel preacher, the more men are incensed and outraged
by a salvation they have nothing to do with, the more clearly
we want to state that Christ is the good Samaritan who comes where the sinner is
in the ditch of death. pours in the oil of his grace
and the wine of his precious blood and picks that sinner up
and carries him to the place of safety and pays his way and
puts himself on permanent retainer for everything we need. Everything. Complete, perfect, eternal salvation
in the person. of Christ, what was your part
in it? It happened to me. He came where I was, when he
was coming, lifting up sinners and paying, paying for life for
them. He came my way. While others
thou art calling, don't pass me by. Jesus, thou son of David,
have mercy. So pray with me that this gospel
of God's Son will run through this place and carry to Christ
all that are brokenhearted, all that are in defeat, all that
are bankrupt spiritually, all that are heavy laden, all that
are thirsty unto death. May the Lord Jesus Christ by
these means show us that we are all these things. and graciously
show himself to us as he did the disciples when they saw his
pierced hands and his pierced feet and cried, our Lord and
our God. In the end of all of our sin
and its consequences, he's washed under him that loved us and. Christ's love for sinners is
not, I hope so, and I wish they would do this. And he's knocking
on the door waiting for you to open it. He loved us and he did
something about it. He gave himself for our sins. May the word of the Lord be glorified
as it is in you, Paul said. The only way the written and
preached word of God is glorified is by glorifying the living word,
the son of God. As Paul said in 1 Timothy 1.11,
this is the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which is committed
to our trust. The way the gospel is glorified
is by God causing it to go forth in power, by God causing it to
run without concealment or confusion or compromise, by outright rejection
and exposure of all that is false. All of this as it regards to
the person of Christ who is himself the good news for sinners. What
was the good news? I've got tidings of great joy.
What are they? A Savior. A Savior. Unto you is born this day in
the city of David, a Savior. Gospel's Christ. Verse two is just another aspect
of verse one. I'll make this brief. Verses one and two could be summarized
this way, and there's more to it than this, but think of it
this way too. Lord, keep us from our evil and from the evil of
this world. Don't let us be a hindrance to
the gospel in any way, and don't let this world hinder it in any
way. Don't let our enemies. have anything to do with it.
May the gospel run free in spite of this treasure being in earthen
vessels and in spite of our Lord Jesus Christ being hated as much
now as he was when he was nailed to the very cross. You tell somebody about this
Christ and you let me know how it goes. Maybe God will have
mercy. Maybe he will. God has glorified
his word above all his name, Psalm 138 too. May he use us
in the accomplishment of that in this world, the glorification
of him in his word. Is that what we think about?
I thought about this. Is that what we're thinking about
when we vacuum the carpet up here or bring something good
to eat when we have a dinner together or clean something up
at the church? Is that what we're thinking about?
Or is it just a chore? May the gospel preached from
this pulpit have free course. And everything that happens in
support of that is so important. Who said I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in God's house than to dwell in the luxuries of wickedness? That's what we're talking about. This is the means whereby it
pleased God to save sinners. It's the word, which is quick
and sharp and powerful. Not me, not you, the word. This that Paul writes, this request
for prayer, it's not some prosaic religious rhetoric. This is vital
to all that we do here. That the gospel be preached with
freedom. without concealment or compromise,
boldly. It's vital to all that God does
here, because every good and gracious thing that God does
for sinners in this world is done this way. He saves them
this way. He comforts us this way. He teaches
us this way. Every good thing He does for
a sinner, He does it this way. May the word be glorified. That's
what Paul's talking about. You see why this was paramount
in Paul's mind when he asked for prayer? May this be paramount
in our minds when we decide whether or not to include ourselves in
the fellowship or in praying for one another, in supporting
the ministry of the Lord, as the scripture puts it. Let's
be grateful and honored and blessed to be a doorkeeper. Even if this
world has no use for us, I'd rather, it's preferable to me, to all the prestige of this world,
to just be a doorkeeper, to just be a janitor in God's house,
a cook. Just somebody that encourages
their brothers and sisters, prays for them, prays for them. One brief period of time in all
of eternity that we have this opportunity. Doesn't the scripture say, wherever
you have opportunity, do good. You know what good, doing good
is? The Psalmist said, who shall show us any good? And then he
answered his own question, Lord, lift thou up the light of that
countenance upon us. He does that this way. So one brief period of time to
honor God in this flesh, we're gonna honor him for eternity,
but just for a little while, even in the flesh, even in the
prison, we're given an opportunity to sing his praises. Even in
the prison of this flesh, in the bonds of this, Paul said,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? But may we,
even in this body, glorify the Lord who's worthy of all glory. And Paul, knowing how vital and
precious this is, said finally, pray. pray. Amen. Let's thank the Lord.