2 Thessalonians 2 verse 1. For yourselves, brethren, know
our entrance in unto 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 our God to speak unto
you the gospel of God with much contention. For our exhortation
was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but as we were
allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak,
not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For
neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak
of covetousness, God is witness, Nor of men sought we glory, neither
of you nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome
as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you,
even as a nurse cherisheth her children. So being affectionately
desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not
the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were
dear unto us. Now, when I read that, a statement
in verse four really got my attention. Verse four, he said, but as we
were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. We have been allowed by God to
hold the gospel. When I read that, I thought,
wow. We have been allowed by God. God has allowed us to have the
trust of the gospel. That means two things. When you
look that up in the concordance, it means two things. Number one,
it means we have been allowed to be stewards of it. allowed to be dispersers of it,
ambassadors for it. It also means to think to be
true, to place confidence in, to be persuaded of. We have been allowed by God to
believe the gospel. We've been allowed to believe
it. If a man is going to believe,
He has to be allowed by God to believe. Great, great privilege. We should never take believing
the gospel lightly, never, never. It's a great work of God to us
just to allow us to believe it, just to believe it. We were allowed
of God to be put in trust with the gospel. We have been given
an awesome responsibility. A awesome responsibility. We've been given a great privilege. We've been allowed to hold the
most costly treasure in this world. The most costly. God has placed in our hands what
is the greatest value and worth that this world will ever know.
his gospel. That brings a reverent fear to
me. That just brings a serious fear
to me. When you are holding something
of extreme value, have you ever held something in your hands
of extreme value? Yes. When you're holding that,
you have a fear in you. There is a reverent fear involved
in holding that. You take extra caution with it.
You become extremely focused on it. The reason is because
you don't want to drop it. Right? You don't want to drop it. When
I had my music store, a good friend of mine that I did a lot
of business with, he came in one day and he said, hey, let
me show you something. I said, all right. He had this
small case, an old case. He opened it up. There was a
mandolin inside. Pulled it out, handed it to me,
I looked at it and I said, that's nice. I had no idea what it was. Old, I could see it was old.
He said, I just bought that. Got it for a steal. I only paid
$70,000 for it. I said, $70,000? He said, oh,
that's a great buy. He said, it's worth $85,000.
I can go sell it today and make $15,000 on it. I said, why did
you hand it to me? Why on this earth would you hand
it to me? I don't want to drop it. Can
you imagine if I dropped it? I don't want to drop it. We're
not talking about $70,000 here. God has allowed us to hold the
most valuable thing in this world. The good news The good news for
all of us is, even though He has allowed us to hold it in
our hands, we're all in His hands, and it can't be dropped. He has
allowed us to hold it, but He's holding us and everything else
in His hands, even though the lot is cast into the lap, the
whole disposing thereof. is of the Lord and it cannot
be dropped. I love how Hebrews 1 verse 3 says, he upholds all
things by the word of his power. All things. But it is truly,
it is honestly a great honor. It is a great honor that he has
chosen to allow us. If you really just think about
it for just a minute, How many places do we know of that have
his true gospel? How many congregations and how
many people? And it is a great honor that
he would choose to allow us to hold it. And we do need to be
extremely careful with it. And we need to be completely
focused on it. All right, with all that in mind.
He's about to tell us right here in what manner we should hold
it, what manner we should be good stewards with it and dispersers
of it, ambassadors for it, how we should minister this gospel.
And I want us to see it in a very real way. In order to see what
we ought to do, all we need to do is look at the minister of
the gospel. That's all we need to do is turn
our attention to the preacher, the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew
4 says, from that time Jesus began to preach, our Lord was
a preacher of the gospel, a disperser of the gospel, an ambassador
of the gospel. Matthew 20 says, the Son of Man
came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his
life a ransom for many so he is our example and before we
look at ourselves let's look at him in this see see him in
the verses so verse three it says for our exhortation was
not of deceit nor of uncleanness nor in guile No deceit, no uncleanness,
no guile. That can only be said about one
man. That can only honestly be said about one man. People all
over this world want to believe that there is no deceit and no
uncleanness and no guile in them. And in that, they are deceiving
themselves in believing that there's no deceit in them. They're
deceiving themselves They're calling God a liar. Men say He
has no sin. He's calling God a liar. And
they are fooling or trying to fool. They're acting trickery. They're trying to fool other
men and women. You know, look at me. There's
something going on inside there that they know something about. But the only person that no guile,
no uncleanness, no deceit can truly be said about is the spotless,
perfect son of God. Down in verse four, he said,
we were not pleasing men, we were pleasing God. That can only
be said about one man. God said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. Only in him. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, I delight to do thy will. Oh God, I delight. You, you see
my heart. You try my heart. The end of
verse five says we didn't come in covetousness. That's Christ. Christ owned everything. He possessed everything. There was nothing that man could
offer him. There was nothing that he did
not already have. There was no reason for him coming
to man. Anything he needed. Nothing man
could do. Nothing man could give. Nothing
desirable about man at all. Man was ungodly. Christ did all the doing. Christ
did all the giving. Christ made all the sacrifice. He did not come in covetousness.
All in giving. The end of verse 5 says God is
witness. Verse 6 says we didn't seek the
glory of man. Our Lord could have made himself
to be glorified by every man and woman on this earth. He sways
hearts. He sways individual hearts. The king's heart is in his hand
as the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will. He
could have turned every heart to him, which is what we would
have done. If it was in our power, that's
exactly what we would have done. We would have turned every heart
to us. He could have raised up a kingdom
on this earth. He could have been glorified
by every soul on this earth, but he did not seek the glory
of man. He did not seek it, not at all.
Not only was he not glorified by man, he was hated, rejected,
attacked. Verse seven says, but we were
gentle. That's Christ. meek patient forgiving
tender don't you love seeing our lord seeing who he is how
he is isn't that a comfort to your heart patient kind verse 7 goes on
to say even as a nurse cherisheth her children hold your place
we're going to come right back but go over to isaiah 66 Isaiah 66 verse 12 says, for
thus saith the Lord, behold, I will extend peace to her like
a river. That means peace is going to
come and it's going to keep coming. It's just going to flow and flow. And the glory of the Gentiles,
like a flowing stream, Then shall you suck, drink, receive nourishment. You shall be born upon her sides. Envision a mother carrying a
baby on her side, everywhere she goes. And be dandled upon
her knees as one whom his mother comforteth. So will I comfort
you and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And when you see
this, your heart is gonna rejoice. It's going to start rejoicing.
That's how Christ treated his people. That's how he dealt with
and ministered to his people. As a nurse comforted her children. Now go with me back to 1 Thessalonians
2. Verse 8 says, So being affectionately
desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not
the gospel of God only, but also our own souls because you were
dear unto us. Souls means breath, life. We were willing to give our own
life. That's Christ. That's our Lord. He was willing
to give up his life to bring the gospel to his people. He
was willing to give up his own life in order to bring the gospel
to his people. And that's what he did. He was
willing And that's what he did. He gave all to the ones who were
dear to him. Now, as his servants, stewards,
his ambassadors, those who have been allowed by God to have the
gospel put into their trust, we must minister the gospel in
the same way that our Lord did. No, we're sinners. No sinful
man or woman can do anything perfectly like He did. We cannot
do what He did. And if we end up doing anything
that's in a right way, it's Him in us doing it. So all the glory
goes to Him. But with that being said, may
He teach us to strive for this. May He teach us to truly desire
this and may He apply it. Verse three, he said, for our
exhortation, our message of the gospel, which he told the Thessalonians
was Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead. And this Jesus, whom I preach
unto you is Christ God manifest in the flesh. He told him this
is the only hope for centers. Christ has to suffer and die
on that cross, put away their sin. God has to be satisfied
and raise him from the dead. And now he's seated on that throne.
Make an intercession for you. Verse three says, for our exhortation
was not of deceit. That means error. He said, we
only preached truth. The only way we can do that is
if we stick to God's word. That's the only way. We have
to stick to God's Word. We only preached the truth of
God's Word. The minute we leave God's Word,
we're headed for error. If we fall in love with some
man, and the reason I say this is because I've known it to happen
before, men who had some trust of the gospel, men who were counted
in the circle of the gospel, started following something else,
following what some other man was doing, and it all went south. We must stick to God's Word. If we leave it, we're headed
to error. Verse 3 says, For our exhortation
was not of deceit nor of uncleanness. That means impure motives. May God give all of us only this
motive. May God honestly give all of
us only this motive in everything that we do here. Not just in
the preaching, in everything. From the moment that we put our
car in park, from the moment we put that car
in park, get out of the car, start walking down the sidewalk,
walk through the front door of the building, may we treat each
other and think on each other, and may our hearts approach worship. As we walk into this building,
may it really sink in. We're coming into worship. We're
not going to church on Sunday morning. We're coming in to worship
God. And may we walk in, and as we
see each other, think on each other, As we approach worship,
our conduct, our reading, our praying, our singing, our preaching,
may this be the only motive. The glory of God. What most glorifies
God. May that be our only motive in
everything that we do. What most glorifies God. May we honestly forget about
everything other than that. What most glorifies God? Verse
3 says, Our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness,
nor in guile. Guile means trickery, bait. Let's never offer anything here
but the gospel. That's not going to be good enough
for a lot of people. that will not be good enough
for a lot of people. Our children need the gospel. They don't need
a foosball table. They don't need one. The minute
somebody comes in and wants to, and you hear about it, somebody's
wanting to donate a foosball table to the, we'll put it in
the basement and it's free. Let's all have the wisdom to
say, thank you. That'd be so, but I don't believe we have room
for it. We don't need a foosball table. We don't need a kid center.
All that stuff is bait. It's all trickery. It's guile.
We don't need it. Verse four says, 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 triath our hearts. The
very last thing that I want to be is a personal offense. That is the very last thing I
want to be. Even though I may not always do the best job at
conveying that, that is honestly the last thing I ever want to
be. But we must preach the gospel. We must preach the truth of the
gospel, no matter what. And if it offends someone in
the process, we cannot change it. We cannot water it down. We cannot veer over to the side
of it just a little bit just to make any one of us happy.
We just can't do it. We cannot be men pleasers. God said, preach the word, preach
the word. Paul told the Galatians, if I
seek to please men, I'm not the servant of God. We must be true
to God's message. Verse five, for neither at any
time used we flattering words as you know. What are flattering
words? Words like this, I hear this
a lot. I have, well, I hear this a lot
and you hear this today a lot. God wants you to do great things. God has great things for you. Get ready to be great. You just
be great for Jesus. You be great for God. God sees
your goodness and He's glorified by it. That's the kind of thing
that's being told to people today. It's a pump-up session. It's
all about you. It's flattering words, all about
you. We must keep the emphasis on
God. We must keep the emphasis on
God. Verse five goes on to say, nor
a cloak of covetousness. God is witness. Covetousness
is desiring something else. This one, this one was a real
blessing to my heart. In the ministry right now, In
the ministry right now, all right, we have this morning plenty of
seats. All right, if somebody comes
in, we have plenty of places for them to sit. If it is God's
will and purpose to add to the church daily such as should be
saved, then that's wonderful. But if not, look what he's given
us right now. look what we have right now covetousness
is desiring something else lord would you remove that in the
ministry of the gospel and let me just be content with what
we have right now this is i think this is wonderful i think this
is just wonderful verse six nor of men sought we glory neither
of you nor yet of others when we might have been burdensome
as the apostles of Christ. Glory, he said, we didn't seek
the glory of men. Glory is esteem, honor. In the ministry of the gospel,
may we never seek esteem. Let's not ever seek esteem in
our preaching, in our singing, in our praying, as a congregation. If the Lord ever does add to our numbers. You know,
the larger a church gets, may we never say we're Kingsport. Yeah, I'm glad y'all are over
there, but we're Kingsport. The scripture tells us to esteem
others. The scripture tells us to highly
esteem others for their work's sake in the gospel. There are
some men that I highly esteem. for their work sake in the gospel. Some are preachers, some are
not preachers. You don't have to be a preacher
to labor in the ministry of the gospel. There are some women
that I highly esteem for their work sake in the gospel. They're
not preachers. I'll tell you, I'll give you
an example of a man that I highly esteem for his work sake in the
gospel who is not a preacher. This man was the initial, instrumental
man. He was the initial, instrumental
man that God used to raise up Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church. His name was Paul Thacker. He lived in Pikeville, Kentucky.
There was no gospel in Pikeville, Kentucky. And he saw Brother
Henry on TV, started listening, called him on the phone, and
he said, I believe you're preaching the truth. We don't have this
in Pikeville, Kentucky. He said, I'm a builder. If I
build a church, will you send men to preach in it? Brother
Henry said, I will. Six months later, the phone rang.
Hello, it's finished. Most everybody here has seen
it. Beautiful building. They're still in it right now.
So Brother Henry started sending men down. God called Tom Harding
to go there. A certain number of years later,
God brought Tom Harding to Kingsport, started work, and here we are.
I highly esteem Tom Harding for his work sake in the gospel.
And I highly esteem Paul Thacker for his work sake in the gospel.
Sometimes men are highly esteemed whether they want to be or not.
they have no say in the matter they're just highly esteemed
but here's the difference it is one thing to be esteemed and
it's another thing to seek esteem may the lord really cause us
to enter in to that difference in whatever we do i want to personally
assess my own heart and say why do i want to do that Why do I
want to do that? Am I just seeking the esteem
of men? Do I just want the respect of men? May we never seek esteem
in the service of God's grace. I want to say that again. May
we never seek esteem in the service of God's grace. May we always
take it to heart what the message is. This is the message we preach.
We are what we are by the grace of God, only by the grace of
God. Verse seven says, but we were
gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. When
we think about what this gospel message means, he said, we were
gentle among you. when we think about this message
what it's saying when we think about what the gospel is it is
a complete misrepresentation of the gospel to serve it harshly
all right when we think about what it is and what it says it
is a complete misrepresentation to serve it harshly today is
my wife's birthday all right if i buy her a gift
wrap it up in some paper, put a nice bow on it, write a card
from my heart. I am not then at that moment
going to literally throw it at her. It is a misrepresentation
of what it is. And as we serve this gospel,
may we represent the gospel for what it is. It's grace, it's
love. He said in verse seven, we were
gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. So being
affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted
unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls,
because you were dear unto us. The gospel is a message of love. It's a message of love. It ought
to be preached in love to those that we love. We love God. Is that to say we never raise
our voice in the gospel? We never boldly tell it like
it is? No, it's not to say that at all.
Sometimes you have to say things in love for love's sake. We love
our God. We love his glory. We love his
good news, his substitution for sinners. And we love each other. And we love declaring the gospel
to each other. And we love declaring it to any
soul God will bring to hear it. Any soul. And the reason that
we gladly endure the persecutions that come with preaching the
gospel is because we care about the souls that we're preaching
to. That's the whole reason. That
is the whole reason. The reason that we declare that
truth is plainly and as honestly and as stripped to the core as
possible. is because we care about the
souls we're preaching to. The truth is very hard on sinful
flesh. It is. It's very hard on sinful
flesh. But if we tell it to sinners,
and if we keep telling it to sinners, just like us, then it
means we love them, we care about them, care about what happens
to them. And if God ever does a work of love on their hearts,
they will in turn love that truth. They'll fall in love with it,
love the truth they thought they hated, and they will in turn
love us. They will. They'll love the messengers
for telling it to them. We have, God has allowed us to
hold his gospel. I pray he might give us the message
and the manner The message to hold and the manner to hold it
in. The manner to disperse it out.
Lord, make us to be whatever you'd have us to be. Whatever
is to your glory and your honor and for the good of your people.
Make us to be that. It's a true honor. It really
is. May the Lord continue to bless
us.