Turn back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. I actually recorded this today
for the radio. I think next week I'm going to
have this put on there. I titled the message, An Honest
Preacher. An Honest Preacher. It's hard
to find an honest preacher. It really is. It's hard to find. Someone said they're like trying
to find hen's teeth. They're non-existent almost.
But it's hard to find an honest preacher. One whose aim is to
glorify God first and feed the sheep and not fleece the sheep. not see what you can get out
of them, but to honestly feed the sheep, to have a heart, to
have a heart for the people of God. I have learned, I believe this,
and I'd say this to any young preacher that may hear this, One of the greatest things God
can give to a young preacher is a heart to preach with. And
that takes experience, and it takes heartaches. As you know,
we go through here, and Paul said he was shamefully treated,
and you know the hardships that Paul went through. And God put
Paul through those things, and in doing that, like He did the
sweet psalmist of Israel, David, He had to run and hide in the
cave for a while. He was hiding and running for his life. But
that's how God gives a man a heart to preach with. That's how God
makes the sweet psalmist of Israel. Many of the things now here that
Paul mentions is in defense of himself. He said, our preaching
is not in vain. There were many saying that it
was. He said that Our exhortation was not a deceit. Many were saying
that it was. Not of uncleanness, that is impure,
not in God. Well, he's being charged with
these things by many of the false preachers, those false prophets
that came among them. And so he had to defend himself.
And I don't think there's anything worse than having to defend yourself.
I know Paul didn't like this. He didn't like having to do that. His person was being slain by
these false preachers. If you can destroy a man's character,
then you can destroy his message. So Paul lets the believers in
Thessalonica know that the message he preached to them was of God. Remember in chapter
1, He said that our gospel came not unto you in word only, but
in power and in the Holy Ghost. And He calls them to witness.
He calls them to be His witness. And He says in verse 1, You know.
You know. You know the gospel I preached.
You know the message. You know what happened. You know
the power of God. that was on you and how it affected you. You turn from idols, he said.
You turn from idols and you turn to the living God. You know this.
If you really want to know what a man preaches, talk to the people
he preaches to. Don't talk to the man, talk to
the people he preaches to. He says, you know our entrance
in unto you was not in vain." He had a clear conscience concerning
his motive for preaching to them. God sent him there. God sent
him there to preach to them. They knew that he was genuine
and that the message he preached was the gospel. They knew it. They were convinced of it. They
were convinced of it. There's no other gospel but the
one Paul preached to them. And Paul's preaching to them
was not in vain. God saved many of them. True preaching is never in vain. God's Word will never return
unto him void. It will accomplish what He sent
it to do. Now if God sends the gospel among
a people in a community, God has some sheep there. to call
out just like he has here in Spring Lake. He's got some sheep
in Spring Lake. And the gospel is here and God's
man is here. I believe that. I believe I'm
God's man. I'm not wondering what I'm doing here. Sometimes
I wonder what I'm doing, but I'm not wondering what I'm doing
here. I believe God sent me here. I do.
I'm convinced of that. And I'm totally convinced that
the gospel I preach is the only gospel there is. I am. I'm 100% convinced of that. I'm
not wishy-washy about the doctrines of grace. I know they are so. They are true. The Word of God never returns
forward. Listen, we may not always see the fruit of it. You know, this radio program
we have, You know, we've been on there for several months now,
but I've not heard anything. But who knows what will happen?
Who knows what will happen? You know, Todd Nyberg told me
he was on the radio for 10 years, never got a phone call, never
got a letter, anything. And then 32 people came from
that radio program. You know, I know there's a few
thousand that listen to it every week. I know that. We may not always see the fruit
of it, but I tell you this, God will see it. God will see it. I may be dead and gone. You know,
I may be preaching the gospel here, and to these young people
that are still here, I'm preaching the gospel, and I may be dead
and gone, and ten years later, all of a sudden, that seed that
was planted right now, God gave the increase. I don't know when
the seed is actually planted. God plants the seed. I'm standing
here just preaching. I'm sowing. I'm casting the seed. But God is the one who puts it
in the heart. God is the one who sows it. And in His time,
He gives increase. In His time, He brings life.
Sometimes that seed may lay in there for years and years, and
then God brings it to life. Here's something that really
caught my attention today. I wasn't going to get this far,
but in verse 13, look at this. For this cause also, thank we
God without ceasing, because when you received the word of
God which you heard of us, You received it not as the Word of
men, but as it is, in truth, the Word of God." Now, this part
really caught my attention. "...which effectually works also
in you that believe." The Word of God is at work in you. When God gives the increase,
when He gives life and He gives increase, and the seed is the
Word of God, the Word of God is at work in you, in the hands
of the Holy Spirit. You have conviction. We don't
have conviction and wonder what it's all about. It's like we're
bothered. No, he takes the word and convicts
us. None good, no, not one. That's
convicting. That's convicting because he's
talking about me. He's not talking about just you, he's talking
about me too. But the word of God, if you've been saved, if
I've been saved, The Word of God is always at work in you.
Always. We'll get to that in another
sermon. But anyway, it works in you. And I may not see the
fruit of it, but in time, God will make it bear fruit. Now the subject matter of Paul's
preaching was not useless. It was not useless, vain philosophy. It was not fruitless. One of
the meanings of vain is fruitless. Paul was looking at the fruit.
You know, I'm looking at fruit here. I'm looking at fruit of
a ministry that's been here for years. I'm looking at fruit.
I'm looking at some of God's children. He's saying, my preaching was
not vain, empty preaching. It was not philosophy, but it
was divine truth. You heard the truth. You've heard
the truth. My soul, how precious that is.
To have the truth. Living in a world of nothing
but lies. I mean, this world is built on
lies. And for God to send us the truth. He says in 2 Corinthians 4, 2,
"...we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking
in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully." Using
the word of God, listen, to manipulate you into getting you to do what
I want you to do. That's handling the word of God
deceitfully. Deceitful motives. Paul said,
and God's preachers do not do that. They don't do that. Paul had no worldly motive for
preaching to the people there in Thessalonica. And everyone
whom God calls to preach and puts into a pastorate, puts behind
a pulpit, they don't have a worldly motive or incentive to be doing
this at all. In fact, Paul suffered much for
preaching the gospel to them. True preaching brings suffering. It brings suffering. He said,
we were shamefully treated there at Philippi, and we preached
the gospel with much contention. Much contention. The devil, I
tell you what, the devil never rests. He doesn't get tired.
You and I got to go home tonight and go to bed. He don't. He don't. He's walking to and fro, up and
down, seeking whom he may devour. He doesn't rest. He's a restless
spirit. Restless spirit. We do not have to go looking
for a fight. It'll come to us. We don't have
to go looking for one. It's going to come to us. If
the gospel being preached in the power of God, and God's getting
the glory here, Satan's not going to be quiet long. He's not going
to be quiet. He's going to stir up trouble.
He's going to stir up trouble. He's going to do all that he
can to take the focus off of Jesus Christ. to get the focus
off of Christ and on to some other matter, some other attention. Don't let your attention be drawn
off of the Lord. Every trouble we've got can be
settled under the gospel. Every trouble. A gospel that does not stir up
trouble, though, Among unbelievers and false professors is not the
gospel of God. It's not the gospel of God. Man
hates the gospel of Christ alone and grace alone as much now as
he ever did. The human race is not any better
than it was 6,000 years ago. In fact, it's more cluttered.
We have more clutter and stuff. I mean, why do you think we build
storage buildings? There was a time we never needed
a storage building. Nobody owned that much. But we
have so much that we have to rent storage space to put it. But by nature, we've not gotten
any better. We're still just as rotten, just
as lost, just as depraved as the day Adam fell. Education
has not made us any better by nature. It just has taught us
a little bit about how to do things a little more deceptively,
probably, to do things in a way that we can kind of do what we
want to do with less trouble. But we're not any better, not
any better. If we do not suffer for the gospel
that we preach, I honestly don't think we're preaching anything.
I don't think we're saying anything. There's no way that you can be right
in a wrong world and not have trouble. You can't do it. There's no way you can tell the
truth among a bunch of liars and not cause trouble. You can't bring light into darkness
and not cause trouble. All you gotta do is look through
the history of the Bible and no one ever preached or believed
the gospel without suffering for it. If we say it plainly
and honestly and glorify God. I mean, I have people, and I think
you do too. I don't know your own life and
families and all this, but there's people I can't talk to about
the gospel. We can't do it. It's just that
they think I'm a nutcase. A believer cannot be a friend
of the world and a friend of God. Can't do it. 1 John 2.15 says you can't do
it. Now Paul said, now listen here,
and I don't know how far I'm going to get here tonight, but
we'll just go till I get tired or get done. But Paul said, we were bold.
We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with
much contention." That's why I said on the radio, I said,
we need bold preachers. We don't need cowards, we don't
need these mamby-pamby preachers trying to court the people. We need bold preachers because
I tell you what, we have a bold truth to tell. It takes a backbone to stand
and tell the truth on God, the truth about salvation, the truth
about Jesus Christ, and the truth about the person standing in
front of you. He said, we were bold. We stood
up. We didn't cower down. You know
that. He said, you know that. We didn't cower down. Bold to
preach the gospel because it's of God. It's of God. Trouble never stopped God's man
from faithfully preaching the gospel. It doesn't do it. In
fact, it's like the stone that sharpens the blade. That's what
trouble over the gospel does to the preacher. It shows you how sin really dumbs
you down. 6,000 years and he still ain't
got it. Trouble just sharpens the blade. It brings the boldness
out of the preacher in preaching the gospel. He says in verse
3, For our exhortation was not of deceit. There were some saying,
Paul's so deceitful, he's deceiving you. It was not of deceit, nor of
uncleanness, nor in guile." As I said, it's hard to find
an honest preacher nowadays because where God has one honest preacher,
Satan has a thousand false preachers. I mean, the whole area is covered
up with them. And Paul says, but our preaching
was not deceptive. And he says, you know it was
very plain. He was very open about it. We
did not have an impure motive for preaching the gospel to you.
When Paul preached, you knew exactly what he said, for he
said it with great plainness of speech. If you leave here
and you don't know what I have said or what I was saying, that's
my fault. I should be able to preach the
gospel as clearly, plainly, simply, that the youngest person in here
can leave knowing what I said. Knowing what the Word of God
says. Paul used great plainness of
speech. And he's one guy, this is one man who could have used
some real language and words. I mean, he's a very educated
man. Paul had great comfort in the
quietness of his own conscience concerning his preaching. He said, I know I have declared
unto you, he said this in the book of Acts, I have declared
unto you the whole counsel of God. And I didn't do this with deceitfulness
and I didn't do it with uncleanness. The gospel that Paul preached
was pure and holy. It was a gospel worthy of God. The gospel being preached so
much today is not worthy of God. If God had not been brought down
to be so puny and so little in today's preaching, people would hear the gospel
that's being preached and say, that's not worthy of God. God's greater than that. God is wiser than that. For Christ
to do all that He can do and leave the rest up to me and you,
that's not very wise. There's no wisdom in that. But when your God is not very
wise, then you can have a puny little gospel to preach. And he said, we didn't do it
with uncleanness nor of guile. Paul never made pretense to anything. He had no secular motives here.
God's man has no secular motives in preaching. Paul points out here, he said
that he was a steward. A steward must be faithful. He recognized his great responsibility. He says in verse 4, we were allowed... We were allowed. God has allowed
us the gospel here. He's allowed us to be here. He
can take it. He can leave it. We were allowed of God to be
put in trust with the gospel. Therefore we speak. Paul did
not make up the gospel that he preached. It belonged to God.
It's God's gospel. He gave it to Paul, and that's
why Paul called it our gospel. But he entrusted Paul with it
as he has entrusted it with me, and he has entrusted the gospel
with us, this congregation. The gospel has been entrusted
to this church. It's been entrusted to us. I know it's not even possible
for us to realize what we've been entrusted with. We have
a great treasure here. We have the greatest treasure
ever, the gospel. In it, God is revealed, Christ
is revealed, salvation is revealed, forgiveness revealed, acceptance. Everything we need to stand before
God is revealed in this gospel treasure. And Christ is that
treasure. He's the pearl of great price. And now Paul says, because of
this, we've been entrusted with the gospel. We do not preach
as pleasing men. Our objective is not to please
men. But God, who tries our hearts,
who sees our hearts. You know, no thought can be withheld
from God. No thought. He knows all our
thoughts and He knows all our intentions. He knows all our
motives for being here. He knows mine for preaching and
yours for sitting there listening. He knows it. He knows it. Nothing is hid from Him. Men-pleasers find out what the
people want to hear, then they arrange their message around
that. You know, I don't put out fillers
to see what you all would like to hear this week, this coming
Sunday. What do you want me to preach
on? How to win friends and influence
people. No, you don't do that. We're
not men pleasers. I go to the word of God and I
asked the Lord for the message. I asked Him to show me the message
in the portion of Scripture I'm looking at. Paul preached the corruption
of human nature. He never turned back from it.
He preached the sovereignty of God. He preached the personal
work of Jesus Christ, the effectual redemption that is by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He preached it. And he said,
we didn't use flattering words. Oh no, he didn't use flattering
words. We didn't brag on the flesh. It's not a Joel Osteen
meeting here. We're not pumping people up and
telling people how to be rich and how to be happy. No, we're
telling people how God saves sinners. How God saves sinners. God's chief glory is His redemptive
glory. We don't brag on the flesh. We
don't use flattering words. We do give honor to whom honors
do. The Word of God tells us to do that. It's respect. It's
called respect. But we're not deceitful in our
bragging, even in our giving honor to whom honors do. We're
not deceitful in it. We're genuine in it. And he said, we didn't
give you vain hopes and false peace. He said we didn't use
a cloak of covetousness. God is our witness. I tell you
what, if you're going to call God in as a witness, you better
be 1000% right. Because if there's an element
of a lie in it, God will not honor it. He won't honor it. You're going to call God in as
a witness now. He's going to tell the truth. And Paul is brave enough to say,
God is our witness. We did not use nor a cloak of
covetousness. We didn't put a coat on and cover
ourselves with covetousness. Our motive was not covetousness.
We didn't want yours. We wanted you. There's a difference.
See, the hireling wants what's yours. Trying to get to your back pocket. I said on the radio, if you've
got somebody that's constantly begging you for money, I suggest
you find you another place to go. If that's the motive, always
trying to get money, always trying to, more, more, more. You know, I was telling Doug
this the other day. I said, as long as the Lord leaves
me here, I said, we never need this church to do anything more
for us than what it's doing now. We don't. We don't need no money. We don't need any raise. We don't
need anything. What you do, you take care of
me and Vicki well. And we don't need a raise. We don't need anything. We're
not in this for the money. You know, when I left that job
back in Ashland, I left the business and then I worked for a person.
When I left that job and I came to do this full time, money has
nothing to do with it. No more. You know, when you're
working a job and you're working, you're having a business, you're
making money, you know, you get into, you kind of get into that mindset.
And when I got out of it, when I left it, and I came here, I
said to Vicki, I said, money is not an issue. The Lord will provide. And He
has. You provide for us very well.
You take care of us very well for no bigger than what this
congregation is. And that's why Paul's saying,
he said, I was not trying to get rich through preaching the
gospel. My, you know whenever they brought
Jim Baker, whenever he came down, whenever he got knocked off his
high horse, you see what they were living on? Great day. You talk about duping people. Paul, Paul wouldn't even take
anything from them because he was a new church. He went into
town and he did not want to have the appearance. of being a shyster. Paul was not like the false apostles
who through covetousness and with feigned words made merchandise
of the people. That's what Peter said there
in 2 Peter 2.3. They make merchandise of you. They see you as merchandise. Nor have men sought we glory.
They didn't seek glory of men, they didn't try to enrich themselves
by their preaching, and they did not try to fleece the sheep,
and they did not try to seek after titles as rabbi or Dr. Paul. No doctor. Doctor of divinity. You realize how much we don't
know. To call yourself a doctor of
divinity, you realize how... When you consider who God...
I'd like to go over right now and start at Job 38, and he said,
Who is this that darkens counsel without knowledge? Where were
you when I laid the foundations of the earth? He said, Do you
know... Have you entered the treasures
of the snow? Come on, doctors of divinity,
tell me. You ignorant fools. You don't know the first thing. You don't know the first thing.
God is so immense and so great, we've not even scratched the
surface. And what's even more sad is that
we're not interested in scratching the surface any more than we
have. To know God? You know we can actually know
God? I know if you've been saved, you know God, but you know, like
Paul said, you know, we look to a glass darkly. There's so much we could know,
the relationship, you know, like my wife, you know, Vicki, I know
her a lot better now than I did 43 years ago. And she knows me too. I'm glad she likes dogs. You know, Paul could have been
supported by them, but he wouldn't do it. He just wouldn't do it.
Instead, he says in verse 7, he was gentle. He didn't come
in commanding and demanding. He says, he was gentle, gentle
as a mother is with her children, tender-hearted toward them, like
a mother who feeds her child. He said, that's the way I was
among you. And he's speaking honestly. He's bearing his heart
to these people. Paul loved these people. And
I tell you, if God gives any congregation a true man of God,
they have his heart. because Christ has his heart. He loved them as his own children.
He was their spiritual father. He called Timothy his son into
faith. This is how we are to preach
to the sheep, gentle and affectionately. Now he had tough words for the
Pharisees, the self-righteous. He called them snakes and vipers. But to the sheep, it was, oh,
everyone, comfort you, comfort you, my people, saith your God.
Comfort my people. He said, we were affectionately
desirous of you, not yours, but you, you. He said, I want to
see you. I want to see you. I want to know you. I want to
hear someone preach to me who really wants to preach to me.
And I want to hear someone preach to me from their heart to my
heart. I want someone to preach to me
that comes in and says, let me tell you what I've learned. Let
me tell you what I've experienced by the grace of God and out of
the Word of God. Paul said, we not only desire
to give you the gospel only, but we desire to give ourselves
to you. We sacrifice ourselves to your good. That's why he said,
we labor night and day. He said, we have wore ourselves
out. And the reason they did that
is because they were dear to them. They were dear to them. It's like you weigh yourself
out taking care of your children. God's preachers do more than
deliver a message. They also give themselves. They
give themselves in prayer for the people. They give themselves
in study. They give themselves in preaching
the gospel in love. You know, true preaching, and
I'm going to close with this. True preaching that is of God is true. It's the truth. It's of God.
And it's powerful. Paul said, it came to you in
power. It's life-changing. Sitting under the Gospel and
God makes His Word to work effectually in you, it'll change you as time
goes by. And I believe this, as time goes
by, you'll grow in grace and love and faith and kindness and
joy and patience. You'll grow in there. You can't
help but grow in them. If God's in it, you can't help
but grow in it. You can't help it. True preaching
is affectionate. It's sent from your Heavenly
Father. This message is sent to you from your Heavenly Father.
This is what our Father has for us tonight. And then it concerns Jesus Christ.
It's always concerning Christ. He's the hub of it. He's the
center of it. It concerns how God can be a
just God and save a wretch like me. It concerns our need of Christ
as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
True preaching is of God. He sends His preacher to preach,
and He gives him a heart to preach with, and His motive for preaching
is not deceitful, it's not covetous, it's out of love. Love for Christ
and love for the people He preaches to. And true preaching is of
God and never in vain. Never in vain. The purpose, whatever
the purpose is for this one tonight will be accomplished. It will
be accomplished. All right, Craig.