Brief and simple passage from
our chapter here, but I want us to See a thing or two if the
Lord's pleased to reveal His truth to us this morning
verse 6 again, but now when Timotheus came from you unto us and brought
us good tidings of your faith and love and that you have good
remembrance of us always desiring greatly to see us and as we also
to see you. Paul had expressed, as I said
already, how anxious he was to know their condition. That's
what he had said, that I want to know your condition, and particularly
concerning their faith. And so we see here how delighted
he was to hear good tidings in that regard. from Timothy, there
was a comfort to him. See in verse seven, and to all
who cared about those folks, those believers there. And how is that a comfort? Here's
what's comforting about that. To hear of faith and love. Well,
that's comforting because that's the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of God's Spirit is
faith and love. And what a comfort to know that
God was working in them. He wasn't comforted in their
flesh distinguishing itself from other flesh. They were, you know,
more moral sinners than other sinners or anything like that. He heard of faith and love and
he said, that's the Lord. That's what's comforting about
that. That's the fruit of his spirit, faith, love, goodness,
gentleness, long-suffering, meekness. And so that is encouraging, comforting,
because there's a fear. The word comfort is key. We'll
talk, Lord willing, a little bit more about that in a minute.
But also notice how that this is observable and reportable. How in the world did Timothy
know anything about their faith and love? And how did he tell,
how was he able to tell all about that? Well, listen to the scriptures
about that. Listen to the verse we just referred
to, where I mentioned that this was God working in them. Philippians
2.12, wherefore my beloved as you have always obeyed, not as
in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, Work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God
which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. You can't see the God working
in you part, but that last part, being willing and doing his good
pleasure, we can see that. So that's how Timothy went there
and was able to say, you know, the Lord is working here. The
Lord's doing something. We can't see God working, but
we can see the result of it. The Spirit blows where he, he
goes where he wants to. You can't see where he's come
from or where he'll go. You don't know where he's going
next, but you can hear the sound. You can hear sinners praising
the name of Christ. You can hear them giving testimony
to the fact that he's all of their righteousness and all of
their hope and all of their salvation. So that was what was comforting
to them and observable. And we can speak, We don't know
exactly what Timothy's experience was when he went to see them,
but we can speak in terms of the kind of things that Timothy
may have learned when he went there. We know what the Spirit
does. The Spirit of God, whose fruit
they displayed, takes the things of Christ and shows them to people.
You reckon they were regularly meeting together and worshiping
the Lord? Would that be a sign that the
Lord was working in them, that his fruit was being borne by
them? I think we can safely say that. They were meeting together. They
hadn't neglected the gathering of themselves together, the assembly
of the saints. And to do so in truth would be
basic, wouldn't it? And necessary to exhibit faith. If they exhibited faith to Timothy,
then they were not just getting together to have a shindig, they
were gathering in truth. In their worship, they were true
to the person of Christ. They were true to his doctrine
of grace. They were true to his honor and
glory, his method of worship by the simple singing of hymns
and praying to him. He said, my house will be called
a house of prayer. And of course, the preaching
of the gospel. And so this is what exhibits
faith. We can't see God working in somebody,
but we can see whether they give a hoot about God's worship or
not. Remember Acts 11.22, listen to
this, Acts 11.22. Then tidings of these things
came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem. Tidings of the grace that God had showed to
a group of people just like this church in Thessalonica. They heard tidings of it and
they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch
who, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad. Barnabas came to this group of
believers and he saw God's grace. How do you see God's grace? He
was glad to see it. And he exhorted them all that
with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Now you think about that. I should
have had you turn over because these words are key now. Think
about that. He saw the grace of God and what
did he exhort them to do? Cleave, stay right there, stand
fast. cleave unto the Lord, not, you
know, we taught you some doctrine here now that's different from
what they're teaching in the synagogues. And I want to make
sure, you know, that you're not straying from the doctrine. That's
not the approach. The truth is known and experienced
by embracing Christ and not letting go. You may have a real good grasp
on the doctrine, but have you laid hold of the Son of God?
That's how you never stray from the doctrine. If you're convinced
by a doctrine, you can be unconvinced by a doctrine. But if you've
got hold of the Son of God, he said, with purpose, cleave unto
Christ. That's how you'll never stray.
That's the anchor that'll hold you in the storm. And I love this part. He came and saw God's grace and
he was glad and he said, you hang on to Christ like your soul
depended on it. For he was a good man and full
of the Holy Ghost and of faith and much people was added unto
the Lord. That's the Lord, that's the fruit
of the Spirit. He was a good man. The fruit
of the Spirit is goodness too, isn't it? Faith, love, goodness,
gentleness, meekness. All evidence that God has done
something. And how is that to manifest itself?
Laying hold of God's Son and never letting go. The fruit of the Spirit and the
fruit of the flesh are not hard to distinguish from one another.
Turn with me to Galatians 5 if you would. We're pursuing this line of thought
because Paul heard of their faith and love. That's the fruit of
God's Spirit. That's God working in them. Them,
you know, again, distinguishing themselves in some way, that's
all fine and well, but he wanted to hear that God was in on it.
And that's what he heard, and that comforted him. Galatians
5.16, listen to the difference, it's not that hard to tell. This
is observable and reportable. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the
flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.
It goes both ways. And these are contrary the one
to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would.
The bottom line is, your works are not gonna measure up. You
being spirit and flesh doesn't mean some of the stuff you do
is perfect and some of it ain't. No. As sinful creatures having
an evil nature, even the good that's in us is tainted. You
know that, you experience that every day. We're limited, we're
restricted. We're polluted by the sin that's
in us. Does it say anything less about
the spirit? We're created in righteousness
and true holiness, the new man, but we're not just the new man,
not yet, not yet. We're new and old. So they lust
against one another, but look, you can't do the things that
you would. Don't go around bragging about your good works. God can
call them good works if they're done by faith in Christ, but
you can't. You can't. God's the one that
decides that. He's the one that judges them
that way, either in Christ or not. But listen, you can't do
the thing, but, You can't do holiness and righteousness, not
in this flesh. Paul said, I can't do the things
that I want to do. The things that I don't want
to do, I do. Who shall deliver me? What's the problem, Paul?
Who's going to save me from the body of this death? That's the
problem. Who I am in this world now, that's
the problem. It's me. It's the other me, the
old me, the godless me. But, that sounds depressing,
Chris, but if you be led of the Spirit, I'll tell you this, you're
not under the law. You can't do anything good, but
you won't be judged by God for it if you're led of His Spirit.
Because of Christ. Because the Spirit of Christ,
you're not under the law. You're not gonna be condemned
for not being able to do anything good. That's glorious. Depressing in a way that we can't,
that like I was talking about, I think Wednesday night, how
depressing, how terrible it can be if we look away from the Lord
and what He's done for us, to have a heart to love Him, but
not a heart to truly worship Him and serve Him. We have that heart, but not not
untethered to this sinful flesh, but you're not under the law. Don't forget that either. That's
a glorious thing. That's a glorious thing. Now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry. There are things that
come between us and God. There are things that all the
time we value higher than we value hearing from God or God
himself. Are we that messed up? You better
believe it. Idolatry, yes. Witchcraft, hatred. Variance,
emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revelings, and such like. Well, that pretty much
covers it, doesn't it? That's pretty close. Strife. Man is born to trouble like the
sparks fly upward. Strife. And such like of the witch I
tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, if they
which do such things, if that's your manner of life and that's
who you are in this world, you're not going to inherit the kingdom
of God. And if you're charged, ever charged with any of it,
you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is
love. joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith. You see why faith and love seen
in these people was a little bit exciting to Paul? Oh, the Lord is there. The Lord
has done something. Make mistemperance against such
there is no law. And they that are Christ's, This is a question of who you
are and whose you are in him. Have crucified the flesh with
the affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit, let
us also walk in the spirit. Let us not be the desirous of
vain glory. Why do we got to be the big shot
all the time? Why do we got to brag on things
that are the grace of God? provoking one another, envying
one another. Our Lord instructs us to be observant
and wise in this regard by their fruits, by their fruits now. But in this letter we're studying
now, it was the way Paul could be able to tell if the Lord had
done a work and not just Paul. He speaks of his labor. He said,
I hope that my labor is not in vain. But he was looking to see
if God had done something. He was delighted to hear that
this church had the fruit to indicate that it was a tree planted
by God himself. The last part of verse six is
the other thing that you most want to hear about someone that
you care about. So both of them are here in this
very verse six. What do you want to know about,
do you want to know how somebody's doing? What is it that you want
to know? That the Lord is blessing them
and working in them. And that they're thinking of
you like you're thinking of them. That they love you too. They feel the same about you. that you do about them. And I
know that this was more, there was more to this than Paul just
being cared about. We want to be cared about. We
want people to be thinking of us. But he means now that they
thought of him in the context of the gospel he had preached
to them. They hadn't forgotten why he had come there and what
he had done when he was there and what he had said. They hadn't
forgotten that. That's not separate from just
being loved for who you are, but the gospel is who we are.
Think about what Paul was to them. He was an angel, a messenger
from God, and they loved him that way as such. Verse seven in our text, therefore,
brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and
distress by your faith. It was comforting. Of all the
words that Paul might have used there, encouraging, we rejoiced, we were delighted
to hear it, but Paul was reassured. He was comforted. His fears were
dispelled. You see the significance of that
word? To be comforted means that you
might be discomforted about something, that there's a dread, that there's
a fear, that there's something that needs to be laid to rest.
And we get a glimpse into the heart that wrote our text by
God's Spirit. In 2 Corinthians 11 three, listen
to what he said. I fear less by any means as the
serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. And so your mind
should be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. You see why he said comforted?
Now I'm comforted. I'm reassured. I'm relieved to
hear it because there's that fear in there. There's that fear.
that maybe God's not pleased. Maybe he won't be pleased to
open their eyes and their hearts. Maybe they'll be corrupted. It's
whether God is with them or not, but how is that manifested? The simplicity that's in Christ. for him to be everything. Simplicity
has to do with no complications, no separation, no diversion. It's simple. It's this and nothing
else. That's Christ. The all inclusiveness that's
in Christ. And when Paul When his fears
about that, whenever he would go and preach to a people, is
Satan gonna be allowed of God to come in like he did in the
garden and rob the very glory of God? Which is Christ. And when he heard that, It wasn't
that way that the Lord had blessed him. He was relieved. He was
comforted. And we see why he chose that
word. God had kept them looking to Christ. They hadn't been removed
from that simplicity, from that all-inclusiveness, from finding
their all in all in the Son of God. Thank God, that's comforting. When we hear of turmoil, division, petty disputes over doctrine
or whatever, it's discouraging, isn't it? It's discouraging.
That's heartbreaking. Whether it's here or somewhere
else, that's heartbreaking, but when we hear, that Christ is
all to somebody, that all of our pettiness and our foolishness
by the grace of God is risen above and Christ is exalted,
Christ is looked to, Christ is trusted, he's worshiped in peace
and in unity. That's a comfort, that's a great
encouragement. We have some definition of what
it is to be a believer in Paul's phrasing of the last part of
verse seven. Comforted over you in all our
affliction and distress by your faith. Now think about that. Think from
Paul's standpoint. Affliction and distress, but
comfort. Comfort rather than anxiety.
Comfort rather than turmoil or discontent. For this world, to
this world, the inhabitants of this world, not having affliction
and distress is everything. Everything to this world is to
have everything go your way without any problems. I know what the
priorities of sinners are because I am one. It's all about me. My welfare,
my prosperity, my happiness in life is everything. And whatever I believe will contribute
to that is what I pursue. Paul, on the other hand, displays
the grace of God as surely as these Thessalonians did, in that
he was able to be afflicted and distressed as far as the flesh
was concerned, and yet be comfortable with that as long as the cause
of Christ in this world was seen to prosper. What are our priorities? You
see that in our text. Paul's priority wasn't, he prayed
that the Lord would relieve him of his afflictions. One in particular,
we don't know for sure what it was, but he prayed about it seven
times, Lord. And the Lord spoke to Paul after he earnestly sought to
have his thorn in the flesh removed. And he simply said to Paul, my
grace is sufficient for you. And Paul said, I'll rather therefore
glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest
on me. I would rather be miserable,
afflicted, distressed, than not have the power of Christ rest
on me. If he's the one with all the
power, and he has decided that it's misery for me, then misery
it is. You see that? That's what we
see here. I'm afflicted, I'm distressed,
but man, it sure is comforting to hear that God's done something
for y'all. Oh, what are our priorities in
this world? Don't just justify yourself if
your priorities are bad. And I'm talking to myself as
well as you. Give your priorities in this
life an honest assessment in light of scripture and walk accordingly. Change if that's what it takes.
Do you know that's what the word repent means? Is that not what
God said to the churches in Revelation? When he saw some of the things
that he saw in the churches, he said, repent, repent, change,
change your mind. We can't do that without him,
but with him we can. That's what repentance is, Shane.
Repentance is not just crying and being sorry and having regret. Repentance is doing something
about it. That's why it's so clearly revealed. We might just naturally be sorry
for the fact that we are sorry, but doing something about it
is not natural to us. That's the gift of God. God's
got to grant that. Repentance is God's gift. Seek
it. Think beyond what specific circumstance
that Paul was dealing with at this time. What mattered to Paul
was not so much how he was doing, but what God was doing. And verse eight is a beautiful
light on that. It was the last part of verse
seven, as well as verse eight, that got me started in this way
of thinking. And this beautifully taught in
the scripture principle, where Paul said, I count not my own
life dear unto myself. If I can preach the gospel, the
way I ought to, as God sent me to do, that I count not even
my life dear unto myself." That's what we see here. His priority
was the glory of God in Christ and the cause of Christ in this
world, not his circumstances. For now we live if you stand
fast in the Lord. We live, we live if you stand
fast in the Lord. We live if you, you see that? We have this saying, I guess
it's still popular. I can't keep up with all the,
you know, what's in and what's out or whatever. But I've heard
the phrase like, you know, just talking about food or just talking
about something petty, you know, this lasagna is life. You know, have you heard that? This show that I'm watching is
life. Well, that's hyperbole, wouldn't you say? But that's
kind of what Paul's saying. It's life to me. This is life. If you, Stand fast in Christ. It's a living example. Paul's
a living example here of Philippians 2, 4. Look, not every man on
his own things, but every man also on the things of others. We're blessed, Paul says. We're
encouraged and strengthened in that you are blessed of the Lord. You know, everybody probably
thinks that I hate doctrine because I'm always talking about how
doctrine is not the answer. And I'm going to keep saying
that, but I love the doctrine of Christ. I love the truths.
I love, I've read the bodies of divinity that make sense according
to scripture. I've read them and I've agreed
with them and I've rejoiced in them. But listen to me. Being a believer is not crossing
all the T's and dotting all the I's. That's not what it is. It's
this right here. It's God doing a work inside
you to such an extent that what matters to you is His glory and
the good of His people and everything else comes next. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ
didn't stand there toe to toe with Simon Peter and say, do
you believe the doctrine? He said, do you love me? If you
love the son of God as who he is, I guarantee you, you're right
on the doctrine. But it's a question of definition. It's a question of his glory.
It's a question of what he does. For us. He died for us, and He
lives in us. This is the love that was in
the heart of that mother in Matthew 15, 22, when she cried to the
Lord Jesus. And they couldn't shut her up.
She kept crying. She cried louder, leave the master
alone. Can't do it. Can't do it. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him saying, have mercy
on me, O Lord. Have mercy on me, thou son of
David. How can the Lord have mercy on
you today, my daughter? My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. Have mercy on me. To do something for her is mercy
for me. God, give us that. Do you love
anybody that much? Dear God, do we pray? Dear God,
if you'd send a pastor to these people, it would be a mercy to
me, it would be a blessing to my heart. If you'd save my friend,
Lord, if you'd save my friend. Maybe the most wonderful thing
the Lord ever did for me, for me, was saving my children. You believe that? This is the work that the Lord
does in us when he does the work of salvation for us And it's
the same person Eternal Salvation is a person
and personal salvation is a person What God did for me is Christ. And what God has done and is
doing in me is Christ. A commandment for you, a commandment
for you that you love one another. A commandment, I have a commandment
for you, he said. Let each prefer other better
than themselves. When you've done it unto them,
you've done it unto me. And this is Christ's love for his
people shed abroad in his people. Thank God for it. Seek God for it. Amen, let's
pray.