This message was preached on
April the 24th, 2016, to Grace Truth Baptist Church. We're in
1 Thessalonians chapter 3, verses 1 through 5, where Paul begins
to express his deep affection for the Church of Thessalonica,
as well as his deep concern that they may have fallen away from
the faith. We see the apostles being willing to give up their
own needs for the needs of the church, that orphaned infant
church in Thessalonica, who was suffering, but by the power of
the gospel were able to endure and stand firm in the faith.
I pray this message is a blessing to you. Father, I pray that this
word would show us that we would see the significance of what's
happened here in Thessalonica. Lord, that we would understand
the parallel and the application of our life today. Lord, that
we would see the beauty of your gospel as it works in the lives
of these people some 2,000 years ago. Father, as it is equally
and most effectively continually working the lives of your church
this very moment. Father, I pray that as we embark
on this opportunity of seeing, that we would behold the beauty
of the cross, that we would see Your face through the person
of Jesus Christ, that we would just be in awe and wonder of
Your majesty and Your power and Your glory. And Father, that
we would be transformed, not because of what men may say or
what we may consider as a resolve, but Lord, by Your great and mighty
Gospel. that saves anyone who believes,
that saves all those to whom hear it. and see and hope in
Christ. So Lord, let this day be a day
where we can see such things working in us. And Father, if
we see ourselves failing, if we see ourselves waning in our
faith, in our walk, in our hope, Lord, help us through Your Word
and by the power of Your Spirit, resolve to trust in Christ alone.
That there is no effort upon our part, Father, that would
satisfy You and Your justice, but Lord, that it was fully satisfied
in the person of Christ, in whom we believe, in whom we live,
in whose name we pray. Amen. Well, church, these narratives
and these letters, it's often frustrating. I say that a lot
lately because these letters were written to certain peoples.
These letters were written to a group of Christians in Thessalonica
so that they would be encouraged, so that their strength would
be encouraged, and their faith would be strengthened and encouraged
so that they would understand what was happening to them in
such a real way that the Lord Himself would be praised for
their existence. Not just for their existence,
but for the ability to withstand suffering. And I know it seems
like a common theme. It seems like, well, all the
way through Ephesians we talked about suffering. All the way
through Philippians we talked about suffering. We talked about suffering
in Titus with false teachers. We talked about suffering in
Jude with all the frustration that was going on there with
those heretics that were preaching false things and Christians were
being led astray. Because that's the point of the
entire New Testament. That's the occasion for every
letter, is that there's some type of conflict that's causing
some type of burden that's creating some type of suffering for the
church. So if that's the reason they were written, then why in
the world would we say anything else? Why would we come to the
table with any other message other than see what the cross
does in the midst of suffering? And the specifics that we see
all throughout the apostles' teaching is that there is no
way out of suffering in this life, period. especially for
the church, that we are going to suffer if we desire to follow
Christ, if we desire to live a godly life. Paul's exact words
to Timothy. We will be persecuted. We are not going to have an easy
cake walk. We're not going to have butterflies and cupcakes.
We're not going to be in a position to where we can live the American
dream as we think it is. We're not going to be in a position
to where we're going to be loved by the majority of people. We're
not going to be in a place where the world is going to look at
us and go, look how loving these Christians are. We just want
to be like them. Now, on the contrary, we see a lot of people
professing Christ in our world today. We see a lot of so-called
Christians in so-called churches, so-called evangelical movements,
so-called Baptist circles, so-called whatever you want to call it.
They say that they follow Christ and they're all about love, but
yet they do something crazy on both ends of the spectrum. Some
of them are crazy, crazy haters. They hate everybody that's not
like them. They hate everything that's not holy. They hate everyone
that doesn't have faith in Jesus Christ. And they're so adamant
about their hate that they profess it at the top of the mountains
that these people are apostate, abomination, all this kind of
stuff. And the Bible does call certain actions in people that
type. We once were dead in our sin and trespasses against God,
but in His mercy, because of the great love with which He
loved us, He made us alive in Christ. And Paul himself, the
abomination that existed in the day of the first century, were
the Jews. Those people who had the oracles of God, who believed
that the Bible was true, but who condemned the very one to
whom the Scriptures pointed. And Paul, instead of hating them,
he loved them with such a degree that he cried out to the Lord.
He was willing to be condemned on their behalf. so that they
could come to faith in Jesus Christ. But it would have been
for nothing because Paul's condemnation would not warrant what? It would
not propitiate for sin. But Christ was condemned on our
behalf that we might become the righteousness of God. That's
why it's called the Good News. So there were these types of
people in Paul's day. There are these types of people
today. They do not represent the whole of Christianity, nor
do they represent the God of Scripture. At the same time,
we see the other side of the coin in these so-called Christians
and these so-called churches and these so-called religious
movements, if I dare say that. We see groups of people who believe
that love is just what it is. It's a feeling you have. It's
tenderness that you have toward everybody. Well, love in itself
can be tender, but love in itself can be tough. I've never seen
any of my children who came out after a good hickory to the behind
and said, that was the most tender paddling I've ever had. Because
if they did, I'd go back in there, just for pride's sake. Oh, really?
That didn't hurt? Let's go. I mean, you know, it's
just one of those things. And I'm joking. I had somebody
write me a really dirty letter about nine years ago when I made
a joke about smoking my children. I don't abuse them, but I'm like,
oh, I had to sit down with her. I was just joking. I don't kill
them. I'd like to, but I don't. But in that, they think that
love is all about just tolerating people. Tolerating people. Putting
up with their nuances. There's this universalistic idea
that's not new. Everybody's a child of God, for
God created all people, so therefore God loves all people equally,
in the same way, in the same manner. The Bible teaches something
very different. God Himself says, reiterated
by part of the Roman Christians, He says that, Jacob I loved,
Esau I hated. Now I love the criticism that
comes with those types of commentators who say, oh, the word hated is
too strong, it means He loved him, but not as much as He loved
Jacob. No, it means He hated him. He hated him. The Scripture says
that God raised up Pharaoh that he might show, what? His power. The Scripture talks about vessels
of mercy and vessels of destruction. You know whose business that
is? It's God's business. God can love what He loves, hate
what He hates, do what He does, desire what He desires, and there
is no one to judge God for all that He is is righteous and true.
He is holy and therefore He owns all things. When we try to question
the fairness of the absolute ineffability of God, we are doing
a fool's errand. We are working in a place mentally
that cannot exist in the finite, depraved mind of a human being.
We cannot see and understand the fullness of the righteousness
of God. Therefore, we cannot see the
fullness of the justice of God. That's why even as believers
today, we often teeter-totter between the reality of the cross
as it is truly and the reality of the cross as it makes us feel. Most every person, if you walked
up to them on the street and told them the story without names
or details about a man coming to die in the place of a criminal,
they would think, what a glorious man. But when you tell them that man
is the God of heaven, whose name is Jesus, who is the Christ,
Messiah, Holy, Anointed One of God, and that He is the King
of all kings, and the Lord of all lords, and they killed Him,
and He raised from the dead, and He is alive forever, and
He demands all men to repent and believe in Him, that they
may have eternal joy and life, they hate Him. Why? Because that's
what our flesh does. Without God's mercy bringing
the gospel to us, we hate God. Because we want to be the master
of our own lives. We don't want anyone to tell
us what to do. We don't want anyone to tell us what to believe.
We don't want anyone to tell us what is good and what is right.
We want to justify these things in our own hearts and minds.
And so friends, these types of so-called Christians often times
fall in a loving place. This is the point of all this.
within groups of our culture. A lot of people love the haters
because they love to hate. A lot of people love the universal
lovers because they love to be loving. But yet ne'er one of
those sides has truth in it at all. The truth is slap-dab in
the center of all things, and it is Jesus Christ in all that
He is. Jesus is the way, He is the truth,
and He is the life, and no one can come to the Father except
through that Jesus, which is taught from Scripture. That's
why it is such a wicked sin when pastors across our nation, of
which I was one, love to take the Word of God, massage it,
give four points, an outline, and a skit, and tell you to go
home and practice it. And it never points to the Gospel
of Jesus. There's nothing good except a
warm fuzzy. And sometimes, friends, even
when the warmth of God's love is near us, it's not too fuzzy.
But it's always rewarding. It's always fulfilling. It's
always powerful. And it's always there. We must preach the truth. Because the world is perishing. And we are the voice of Christ. As we teach His Word. We don't
hear it. No, God told me. God told you,
you better find the reference. I may have brought it to your
remembrance, but if God told you something, I want to see it in
a good translation. I want to see what God told you.
I don't want to hear it. I want to see it. To the text, the very last verse
of chapter two says, for you are our glory and our joy, our
joy. And I dealt with this a little
bit last week. And I want you to know that there's so much
in that. As I landed it last Sunday, it
just seemed too quickly. The plane said, crash and burn.
We got off real fast and left. I want to just remind you of
what it means and then move into chapter 3 because it's important.
You are our glory and our joy, but we know that Christ is our
joy, and Christ is our glory, Christ is our treasure, Christ
is our crown, Christ is our hope. But Paul just said, are you not
our hope? Are you not our crown? Are you not our joy? It is you.
What is? You are. The church. because
those whom God has redeemed and purchased through Jesus Christ
are His body. We are one in the same with Christ.
We're not gods. We're not mini-Christs. That's
not the point. We are united with Christ eternally
forever as His church, so that the work and the righteousness
that we do and the joy that we have in Him And all of the holiness
that comes from our lives is not a pat on the back for us,
but is a praise to the Father through Jesus Christ the Son.
So that when we see the work of God amongst us, the church,
we see Christ at work. So that when we see Christ, we
see our glory. There it is. We can talk about
that for the next hour. But that's the point. Satan, by the authority and sovereignty
of God, had hindered Paul from going back to Thessalonica. And
he left there and he went to Corinth. And while he was in
Corinth, he was scared to death that the Thessalonians were falling
away because of what was happening. They left after just a short,
maybe six months or less. And they suffered. They were
suffering. And Paul was worried. Are these truly believers? Are
there people deceiving them? Is something happening in their
midst that will cause them to fall away? Are they really truly
children of God? I'm concerned about them. I'm
burdened about them. It's sort of like when our kids
go off for the first time. You know, for you who are parents,
it's an unnerving feeling. Even though they're with grandma
a mile down the road, you know, they go off, you're like, oh
my gosh, what's going to happen? Is the car going to explode?
Is a meteorite going to crash into the middle of the, you know,
something's going to, you're worried. So you love the moment when they
drive back up. And as they get older, you're
like, would you just leave? I mean, you know, you know how that works?
And I'm joking, children, please don't leave. Imagine the spiritual Father
Paul with these children who in masses came to faith and were
left to themselves. We've already seen that the power
of God, that God was faithful to raise up people to hold fast. But Paul and Timothy and Silas
did not know that. They were concerned about these
Christians who were orphaned so quickly. And as he's there, he gets word
that he doesn't know what's happening, but he gets word that there's
suffering going on in Thessalonica. He gets that horrible report
from Galatia. And you know what he writes to
them. And so this letter is written
after the happenings there where Paul sends Timothy, as you'll
see in a minute, and deals with all of these things. He is excited
that he saw and heard the report of their faith. For they are
His glory. and there is joy. And though
the devil was tempting them, in the sense of tempting them
to doubt and be frustrated, but preventing them, is what he says,
from going, it made their burden stronger. I can't get there. It's out of my hands. The Lord
has not willed us to come back. So therefore, I'm more concerned
now than I was because I can't put my eyes on Him. I can't put
my hands on Him. That's why the writer of Hebrews teaches us
that not being in the local fellowship of the body on a regular basis
is a cause for concern. I'm not talking about providential
hindrance. I'm talking about just laissez-faire,
who cares? It doesn't matter. Church, no
church. It doesn't matter. That's a dangerous
place to be because when God has saved us, the first and foremost
action of the new heart, of the new mind, is I've got to be around
God's people in God's Word. We want to be together. So he says, chapter 3, verse
1, look, therefore, when we could bear it no longer, We were willing
to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother,
and God's co-worker in the Gospel of Christ to establish and exhort
you in the faith. That no one be moved by these
afflictions, for you yourselves know that we are destined for
this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand
that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass.
And just as you know, for this reason, when I could bear it
no longer, I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow
the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain. Now
I'm going to preach this as it is right here, verse by verse,
and pull out that, and going to give you sort of a heading
for each thought as if the apostles were explaining it. So I'll do
it sort of like this, the first one. We long to see your joy
in Christ grow. Now this is tough. But in the
context of all that we've read thus far, what does Paul say?
Paul says that I long for your joy, I pray for your joy, I want
to come disciple you and minister to you so that your joy may be
full, so that you will not worry, so that you don't have anxiety,
all of these things. I want you to have the fullness,
because I have for you all the affection of Christ. So that
we can say, he says, I could bear it no longer. Imagine the
reality of just not being able to just know Everyone was okay. I mean, you remember, those of
you who remember 9-11, where you were, what you were doing.
Remember Robin calling me and saying, a plane has just wrecked
into one of the Twin Towers. That's crazy. And so we pull
up the news, and as we're watching the news, what happens? Another
one flies in. You're like, this is no accident.
This is nuts. What's happening? And then all
of a sudden you remember, wow, you've got friends up there.
You've got family up there. You've got people that work right down
there in New York. And then you hear about the Pentagon. My goodness,
I've got friends that work for the government. So what are you
thinking about? You're thinking about those people
who you know, who you love, who you consider. You haven't thought
about them in a year. But now that they're in trouble,
all of a sudden they're on your mind. And you don't know. The cell phones were down, the
internet was down. Once it found out that it was sort of a terrorist
attack, everything sort of bogged up. Bottleneck. We didn't have
the infrastructure to establish everybody using the World Wide
Web and telecommunications at one time. It's not possible.
It's like gym memberships. They've got a thousand people
and nine machines. Everybody shows up, it's not going to happen.
But we were concerned. We tried to call. We couldn't
do it. And the moment you finally got that email or that text from
somebody, I'm fine. You can just rest easy. This
was the stress that Paul was under. Are these Christians okay?
I need to know. I need to go. I need to find
out if what we did there was God's work, if He saved them,
or if they're just flying off and just falling away. If so,
we've got to go back and preach some more. Maybe God will save
them. I could bear it no longer. You
see that? I'm concerned for your joy in
Christ. I want to know that you have
Christ as yours. And that you are His. I want
to see God's work in you. Is that our heart for each other?
What do we see in Scripture? As long as it's called a day,
we should be encouraging one another. Bearing with one another. Encouraging each other to what?
Love and good deeds. Living life together. Bearing
with the weak. Holding up the strong. Proclaiming
the gospel, not just to ourselves, but to the world. We are to minister
to each other for our joy. And you know that as the elders
of the church, we know, I've said this many times, we gauge
the call by the joy of the church. In other words, what we do and
how we exist to be with you is for your joy. Calamity? Okay. Ministry creates
joy in the midst of pain. It doesn't eliminate that which
is painful. It never does. Even if it is, it's only temporal.
So Paul, pastorally, is concerned to the point he could bear it
no longer. And what does he say? Because
I could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind
at Athens alone. Now friends, I don't think you
should all go read commentaries, but if you do, I promise you,
you will see a crazy bunch of stuff with this text right here.
You will see people... Oh see, well Silas wasn't with
Paul, so something's wrong. This must not be Paul's... I
mean, all sorts of different things. What's the point? Paul
needed Timothy. Timothy was part of the team.
Doesn't matter. You lose part of your team, you're
alone. We are alone. That which we have come to do,
we all have a part, we all have a place, we all have a purpose,
and if one of us is missing, then we're alone in that. It
doesn't matter. That's not the point of Paul's saying that.
Paul says that so that he will see, he says, we let our needs
go for your needs. That's what Paul's saying. When
I could bear it no longer, I'm here, I've got a church to plant,
I've run from your place, now I've got these problem people
over in Corinth, these problem people over in Galatia, and I
don't know what's going on with you. And I'm very concerned,
so instead of doing that, which is very important here, I'm here,
I can see what's up, I'm going to separate the ministry plans
for where I am, and my needs no longer matter. But let me
tell you what the church growth movement taught me. And that's
a bad thing. Church growth movement is bad.
Purpose-driven church, all that kind of stuff. Let me tell you
what great, great, powerful people taught me, young in my ministry,
is that you never, you never do anything that would hurt a
program or an activity. Never. Because people are going to be
cantankerous. There have even been seasons
in my ministry where we had what we called EGRs, extra grace required
people. That was the code word in the
hall. Oh gosh, there comes Sister Sally. I hope nobody's name is
Sally in here. I'm not talking about you. But Sister Sally,
she's an EGR. She's always got problems, always
got trouble. That's the point of being the body of Christ.
Could so-and-so, could Brother Bob just get his life together
and get on track with Jesus? Can you hear these things? You
ought to hear these things in pastor meetings or deacon meetings
or elders meetings. And when it finally hits you
the way it is, it starts to disturb you in such a way that you're
willing to set yourself on fire so that people can get the gospel
and see their joy in Christ. Paul says our needs are going
to go to the side so that your needs are met. So like Jesus, I lay aside my
glory and suffer the shame for your life, church. And if God
did that through His Son, how much more should we do that for
each other? We let go of our needs in the
way that was and we sent, who? Timothy, our brother and God's
co-worker in the Gospel of Christ. We sent Timothy, our brother
and God's co-worker. The word there, funny thing,
is diakonos. In the Greek it means servant,
slave. What we call a deacon. And so we thought, wow, Timothy
was an elder. He was an elder. He was like the chief elder of
Ephesus. He was the spiritual child of
Timothy. He took him from his mama's house and brought him
up in the faith of the church of Christ. And he was important to Paul. And Paul said, His work here
with me is not as important as your joy in Christ. It's not
as important as your ministry that's needed there. It's not
as important for us to make sure that you are not falling away.
So I'm going to send my servant to serve you. How did Timothy
serve the people of Thessalonica? He said, we set out to build
your faith in the midst of your pain. He said, to establish you
and exhort you in your faith, to be strengthened in your faith,
to set you up, to set a wide and deep foundation that nothing
would shake you. Timothy's coming to teach you
the Gospel and to teach you the Word and to be with you and teach
others, to teach others, to teach others. You see, Paul, he wrote
that letter to Timothy. He said, entrust this gospel,
entrust this what? Treasure to reliable men who
would teach others also. That's why Timothy went back
to Thessalonica. That's the ministry of the church.
That's what we're supposed to be doing. And yes, if we're thirsty,
hungry, naked, or homeless along the way, then we bring that stuff
along. But the real ministry of the
people of God is to teach the Word of God to each other. And
whether we're sitting in a pile of ants in the middle of the
Sahara, or whether we're sitting in a coffee shop in Statesboro. That's the point. And none of
us are wise enough to give us all the great ins and outs to
be able to overcome emotionally and psychologically all of our
problems and our burdens. But Christ and Christ alone,
when we appear in the face of God and the atonement that is
given through Jesus our Redeemer, there is nothing else that comes
close to overshadowing that beautiful thing. So death can be around
my neck, Christ in my eyes, death has no presence. Even if it chokes
the life out of my body. Paul tells the Christians in
Rome, he says, now to him, it's a doxology, who is able to strengthen
you. How? According to my gospel and
the preaching of Jesus Christ. If you want to be strengthened
in the midst of suffering, if you want this life to have purpose,
you must forever and continually hear the Gospel of Christ. You
must feast upon the Word of God to have intimacy with absolutely
eternal power. If we don't do that, we don't
want power. We don't want strength. We don't
want satisfaction. We don't want joy. We seek it
after other things. We seek other opportunities for
the world to give us the answers we want when it doesn't necessarily
matter what the answer to our problems are. Because Christ is here. Cast your cares, what does Paul
say to the church in Philippi? And your anxieties upon Him.
For the Lord is present, to paraphrase. And then what does he say? And
the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will strengthen
you, will keep you. Peter says that we're being kept
by the power of God. We're being kept by the power
of God. Friends, the power of God is the preaching of Jesus
Christ and His Word. We set out to see your joy in
Christ, to let our needs go for your needs, to build your faith
in the midst of your pain. And you might be asking the question,
Church of Thessalonica, but why are we suffering this way? Why
do we have to suffer? Can we not pray? You know, I
heard some preachers who told me once, some of them would say,
that we don't have to suffer. People told Paul everywhere he
went, you don't have to suffer. Renounce this mess. Don't even
renounce Christ. Just stop this preaching. This
is insane. Don't go into the streets. Just
like hearing klaxon from the public officials several years
ago. You can't do this. Nobody's been called of God to
do this. That sign says no solicitation.
Don't go in there sharing the gospel with people. I'm not soliciting
anything. I'm proclaiming everything. We want to build your faith.
Why do we have to suffer? He says, for you yourselves know.
You yourselves know that you're going to suffer. And so the outcome
of growing you in your faith through the preaching of the
Gospel, strengthening you in Christ Jesus, what does it do
for you? It makes you immovable. Did you
hear that? It makes you immovable. How many
times in our life, how many seasons of our lives do we look back
and go, oh, if I could just be where I used to be. If I could
just have the joy I used to have. If I could just have the zeal
I used to have. If I could just get back in church. If I could
just get back in Bible study. If I could just get back to teaching.
If I could just keep on doing this conditional if in the past. Well friends, we're not trying
to get our lives to mimic a season or a moment of emotional high
or spiritual high. Because friends, Paul's most
significant ministry came when he was significantly chained
to the wall and someone else had to write his words for him. And people would say, well that's,
man, his ministry, what's he going to do now? What is God
going to do now? The problem with our world is
that we want to see what we've accomplished in our ministries.
And if we can say, we did this and this happened, we did this
and this happened, we did this and this happened, guess what?
All three of those are not of God. If we could say we did nothing
but preach Christ and all of this took place, then God is
in the work of doing these things. Transforming lives. Working to
save the lost who hate Him and they become lovers of Him. We
get to the place where we often sometimes feel like we've moved
so much that there's no hope for us. We've been hurt so much
that there's no hope for us. We've been just misaligned or
maligned, if I can, by people in the church and there's no
hope for us. There's just no way. Friends, when we hear the
Word of God, when our friends, neighbors, and family teach us
the Scriptures, when we see Christ in His fullness, we are unmovable. We don't sit condemned in the
center of a judgment circle. We sit to the right of the Father
with our Savior Christ. Think about that imagery. Paul
even tells the Ephesians that that's where we've been raised,
to sit up in the heavenlies. That's insane. Why would God
want me there? Why would God want you there?
To display His holiness. But I'm not holy. Yes, you are.
And one day you will fully be as we fight the good fight of
faith, as we put to death our flesh every moment of the day.
Never, never, ever will we be completely holy in our flesh. Don't take play on words there.
We stand holy before God because of Christ today. It is not our
righteousness but His. And friends, there is no way
that the suffering is going to stop. For you yourselves know,
look at this, that we were destined for this. Destined for what? Destined to suffer. It is the
purpose of God for His church on earth. That is awful news! Where is the joy? Friends, let
me tell you something. Read Ecclesiastes and see that
Solomon understood it. The righteous suffer and the
wicked suffer. The righteous suffer because
of the fallenness of the world, because of the depravity of the
flesh, because of sin, because of just where they are. The church
suffers sometimes for the same reasons and then also because
we love Christ. And that suffering comes in many
forms. That suffering comes when people
come in with a sword and threaten us with our life, that we renounce
Christ or die. And we die. Throughout the centuries,
where people, even from the Catholic faith, the Catholic tradition,
I'll stop saying that, the faith. Well, you renounce this protest,
you renounce this stuff, or I'm going to burn you at the stake. Set me on fire, many of them
would say. And the annals of history show
us time after time after time after time again, when true believers
are martyred, they say nothing in their defense. Even Paul, he did not invoke
his right as a Roman citizen, except when they tried to hide
the injustice. No, I'm going out the front door.
I'm not. You beat me against your own
law. I'm going out the front door.
You're not sticking me out the back alley to go out there and somebody
say I was burglarized or mugged. I'm going out with my flesh hanging
off my body and I want people to see that you did it. Why?
Because in my suffering, what did he tell the church of Colossae?
I fill up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ. It's
a big statement. Not that Christ's suffering wasn't
sufficient, but Christ's suffering was not visible. What happened
to Paul? He preached Jesus and they did
that to him. I don't want him preaching it
in my house. You see that? So that those who see the cost
of following Christ, friends, God overcomes the flesh. Nobody
in a sane mind says, I want to be beaten like that. Sign me
up. My life is fine as it is. We
see Saul coming with his skin hanging off. I'm not listening
to that preaching. But we hear it. God saves us
and we get beaten. And we rejoice in it. What does
Paul and Silas do when they planted the church in Thessalonica? They suffer. What happens when
they plant the church? What happens? They get arrested.
They get beaten. They get put in. What do they
do? Whine and cry. Praise God. Chains fell off. We're not going to cower back.
Friends, we are going to suffer. It is our destiny. And if that's
not the Christianity that you want to sign up for, then you
aren't born of God anyway. This may be new for some of you. Wow! That's okay, beloved. It
can be new. And you ought to struggle with
it. You ought to bear witness to the reality that it contradicts
the very nature of our flesh. It's just contrary to our way
of life. We want to suffer? Friends, I
don't know too many Americans on this soil who are suffering
that way. And sometimes suffering looks like this. Your people
at work start to poke fun at you. You ever had somebody laugh
when you walk into a break room? Because they saw a Bible on your
desk? And you know what, that gives
you the opportunity to hide that Bible and not look at it again,
not put it in there. Take your Jesus memorabilia or whatever you've
got hanging around your office, your personal life expressed.
A couple of years ago, the 25th,
or not the 25th, whatever, the anniversary of Facebook, you
know, they had this thing where you could click on it and it'd
put a collage together with a bunch of pictures and things you posted.
If you did that, you could look and see exactly what it is that
comes out of your mouth and life. And for most of us, it's, wow,
look at our adorable kids. Look at this little funny thing
and look at Jesus. What if it costs you your life?
What if it costs you your friends? What if it costs you your marriage?
What if it costs you your job? It will! It will cost you dearly! Because the world hates God. We hated God before He came to
us. Before He found us in the darkness.
Before He reached down through the mouth of someone else whom
He had saved and proclaimed the good news that He had given us
eternal life through Christ Jesus and that there is no way possible
for us to attain it or seek after it. We were just like Him. Well,
I didn't really hate God. Yes, we did. We hated Him. We
loved the God of our religion, the God of our grandmothers,
the God of our history, the God of our culture. We did not love
the God of the Bible, Jesus Christ in the flesh. That's who the
God of the Bible is. Everybody in the world says,
well, I love God, I love God, I love Jesus. Listen, three of
the main cults use Jesus Christ in the New Testament text as
a way of introducing their heresy. And to the root of it all, when
Jesus says, I am, when He says that He is God, when He portrays
that in the reality of His power, when God Himself speaks of Jesus,
when John says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
God, and the Word was with God, and the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us. We have seen the glory of God
in the face of Christ. The fullness of all that God
is, is seen in Christ Jesus. That's the Jesus of the Bible.
And that Jesus suffered and He says that in like manner we also
will suffer because those who hate the Master will hate the
slave. Those who hate the Father will
hate the children. Those who hate the teacher will
hate the student. Next time somebody's engaged
in conversation with you, just listen. Express the truth of the confession
of your faith in Christ. We are in a day when there is
no possible way for you to be in the public market and not
have somebody either directly or in the vicinity of your ears
talk politics. It's going to happen. I was sitting
at McDonald's yesterday and I hear Trump, Clinton, Hillary. I hear
it. I was like, what is this? The
Democratic-Republican National Convention together? I think I'm going to stand up
and just preach in the middle of it. I didn't feel the Lord
pressing me. I was just irritated. How many conversations do we
engage in when something is talked about despairingly? Oh, Lordy
mercy. You ever see people say that?
Lordy mercy. What does that mean? Lord of mercy, I guess. He is
the Lord of mercy. Something better happen. We better
get on our knees. Listen, if we get on our knees,
God's going to do that which He is going to do. We're going
to pray His will be done. And there's no condemnation for the
church of Jesus Christ, no matter what nation they live in or how
ungodly the populace is. It's an opportunity for the gospel.
Somebody complains to me about the possibility of a president.
I'm like, the president is just a pawn on a board. Jesus Christ
is the King of Kings. All things. The United States
is inclusive of Babylon, baby. What do you mean? Oh man, you
never heard the gospel. What happens the day when God
brings tyranny into this nation and it becomes no more and all
who proclaim the name of Christ have their heads taken from their
bodies with their children? There will come a day. And we
pray that it doesn't. But while it's not here, take
full advantage of the day. Redeem the time. Proclaim the
truth. Because the suffering is not
going to stop. And the suffering can come that way. The suffering
comes through hatred, problems, relational issues. The suffering
also comes from within. Have you ever known that? This
temptation, this suffering comes with being embroiled and embattled
in our own consciousness. Maybe it's the problems of our
job. Maybe it's our conflict in our
marriage. Maybe it's just things that we
think and feel. Maybe we're depressed. Maybe
we're frustrated with life. Maybe. Maybe. We're doubting our faith. These
are problems. These are things that happen.
These are temptations. And the right person comes along,
either on television or radio or in person. The right book
has slid our way. Oh, you have problems with really
trusting in Jesus? Then you need to read the book
here. Oh, you want to understand how
much God loves us? Then read the shack. No, don't read the
shack. Use it for firewood. Or if you
like to shoot long range, shoot them. Statements like that probably
shouldn't have been said, but you know what I'm saying. The
shack isn't going to show you the love of God in his heart. The Scriptures are going to show
you the love of God in his heart. Learning how to pray from somebody
who wrote a book on prayer is not going to teach us how to
pray when Jesus says pray in this manner. And if someone's not expositing
Scripture in their writing, flush it. If it's not a reflection
on that which is clearly taught in Scripture, it's not truth. Sometimes that temptation comes.
And buddy, that boils me. Because I spent a lot of years
wasting a lot of time reading a lot of books that I wish I
could flush. Sometimes we think that the eyes
are the windows of the soul and that means anything negative, nasty,
perverted or sensual shouldn't come into our eyes, which is
true. False teaching shouldn't come in there either. Watered
down, wasted words should not come into our ears either. We
should spend time in it just because it encourages our little
fleshly soul for just a moment. Spend more time in that which
is just absolutely powerful in us. The Word of Jesus Himself.
Suffering is certain for those who are truly God's children. For you yourselves know that
we are destined for this. John, Jesus says, I have said
these things to you that in me you may have peace, in the world
you will have tribulation, but take heart. What does he say?
I have overcome the world. In Acts 14, strengthening the
souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith,
and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the
Kingdom of God. What does that mean? That means
by the time we get to heaven, we're going to have suffered
much. Access to Christ is free. God
gives the Gospel. God gives grace. God gives faith
freely as He sees fit. But He does not say the path
is easy. The question is, are we going
to jump off the road to the easy way? Jesus says broad is the
path that leads to destruction. Many will go that way. Narrows
the gate that leads to righteousness and few will find it. Paul tells 2 Timothy 2. Indeed, all who desire to live
a godly life will be persecuted. You know, we have taught you
that you will suffer and you will not have an easy life. And
now we see you suffer in Christ. He says, look, for when we were
with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer
affliction just as it has come to pass and just as you know.
So for some that would say, well, you know, I hear Pastor Tippins,
he's talking this stuff, he's always talking about suffering,
but I heard a pastor on TV the other day talking about how God
doesn't call suffering. Well, he's a liar because the
Bible says that God does allow suffering. And the Bible guarantees
that Christians will suffer. So the temptation to believe
God's Word directly or someone else's massage through God's
Word that's false is going to be a hard temptation. Why? Because
we can agree with that which pleases us. Paul tells Timothy
there will come a time when people will not endure sound doctrine
and will gather for themselves teachers to scratch their itching
ears. To teach them what they want
to hear. And friends, let me tell you who those teachers are.
They're the most popular, most prolific, most pronounced, and
most public so-called preachers that the world has ever seen.
And if you want a list, just come up to me after service.
I'll give them to you. The Total Bologna Network. Don't watch it. It's evil. It's not just watery, it's evil.
Anybody who pays to be on that network is evil. You're going to suffer. See,
we told you, and it's come to pass, you're suffering. Don't
forget it. And we had to know, Paul is saying, if you were truly
in Christ for this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I
sent to learn about your faith." What is Paul saying there? The
reason that I sent Timothy to strengthen you, to be there,
to encourage you, is because I also wanted him. See, that's
the thing. Timothy didn't get there and
text Paul and say, yo, it's all good. He had to spend some time
there and then travel back under fear of death. Hey, wait a minute,
wasn't that Paul's little lackey? Get him! Take his head off. That
was the condition of their walking around and doing ministry in
that day. It wasn't just somebody throwing an egg at your truck
or scratching off your igloos of your car. Christians, I hate
them. Or drawing a tail on it for Darwinism or whatever. That's
not really persecution. It's aggravating. It's not persecution.
Timothy was in danger. He had to get there, do the ministry
that he had been sent to do, and then get back to Paul in
person. And he got back to Paul. He says, I sent so that I could
know of your faith, so that I could learn of it. I want to see it.
I want to see the reality of your faith. I want to hear about
the work of God among you. I need to see Christ working
so that I can be at peace. Because I was in fear that somehow
the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain. You
see that? Verse 5. Somehow the tempter
had tempted you and that our labor would be in vain. The temptation
to leave the church of Jesus Christ is great. Now I want you
to be very careful not to hear what I'm not saying. But I want
you to hear what I am saying and all the implications therein.
Grace, truth, church, we are not the perfect people that have
the perfect gospel that do the perfect thing and doing it all
the way God wants us to be. To say that would be a little
bit pompous and would fall a lot in line with 1 John. To say we
have no sin, we lie. But our striving as a people
is to be a people for God's glory by His grace. What does that mean? That everything
we are and do and how we handle every conflict and how we deal
with every opportunity to minister, we want to do it in such a way
that it gives glory to God so that when the outcome lands,
God is glorified through it because His grace is the effectual agent
for it. I don't know if I can repeat
that, but I'll rewind it one day and look at it. And we know that the Scripture
teaches that the only way that the church is going to grow in
its joy, in its ministry, in its intimacy, remember we talked
about that last week, in its intimacy with each other and
unity to make an impact on the world at large is that we gather
together around the Word of God as often as possible so that
as our intimacy grows with Christ, our intimacy grows with each
other and then we have a supernatural affection that cannot be shaken
by the small little nuances and the ridiculous fodder of the
world. So that the little tiny problems that come up, though
they may want us to, in our fits of fleshiness, just burn down
everything, we give up everything so that the joy or the ministry
to our brothers and sisters is made whole in Christ. We want
to be those people. We want to be a people, not a
place. Don't ever invite someone to Grace Truth Church. Invite
them to be with you. See? Just the mentality is so
messed up in our world today. And when we leave here and we
go across town a couple of blocks and get a bigger space in a couple
of months, don't invite them there. Invite them to be with
us, not to us. We fear that someone attempted
you. Friends, the point of all this is this. There's a temptation
with us every moment. Listen, there's a temptation
in every one of us, every week, every moment, every opportunity.
Am I too tired to be with the church? Yes, I am. I'm too tired to be with the
church today. Thankfully, I get to stand up,
so if I fell asleep, that'd be a little funny. Am I too frustrated to be with
the church today? Absolutely. There's a lot to sit home and
wring my hands over. Am I flooded? Am I too flooded to be with the
church today? I had some water problems last
night up to 10 o'clock and just shut it all off and left it.
But it's a temptation. And sometimes we've got to get
our ox out of the ditch, but for most of the time when we
fail to assemble together with the flock, with our body, friends
listen to this, we're failing to trust in the power of the
Gospel of Jesus. Not only that, we fail to understand that our
significance amongst the body, even small, is super. There are
people who are not here today. There's 20 people who are not
here today. And they can't be here because
of other things, but they're missed. and their being together would
be a ministry to them and a blessing to them and a ministry to us
and a blessing to us. Each of us, when we come together, when
we assemble, we are actually enabling the opportunity for
God to use us to minister to each other. There's a temptation
When it comes to persecution, when it comes to frustration,
when it comes to these internal and external things, there's
a temptation that the enemy of God continually presses before
us to keep us from the fellowship of the church. It's not an obligation, though
it is in the sense to each other. It's not an obligation to God.
God isn't like, well, look at all the people in church today.
I'm so excited. No. It's an effort. It's an effort. I endeavored,
Paul said, to come to you, and I went. Now I know it doesn't
parallel perfectly, but friends, is our affection toward Christ
and toward His body equally intense? There's a problem when you think
your presence here is not vital to the health of the church.
Because you know what I do? I take roll. And I remember the
seats you're sitting in. I pretty much know the color
of the shirts you're wearing. And I get home every Sunday and
I write down everybody who was here. And then I would look and
see who's not here. And then that burdens me. Then
I start calling. Start texting. Start Facebooking.
Start emailing. Start smoke signals. Whatever. Why? Because what do you do with people
you care about? You look for them. Paul is looking for these
people. My friends, do you think it takes
a year away to fall into sin? No, it takes a day away. It takes a decision in your mind
to go, ahh. And then all of a sudden the
temptation, man, I had a wonderful Sunday sitting at home. No, you
didn't. No, you didn't. Not as a Christian.
You did not have a wonderful Sunday. I mean, it could have been a
pleasurable Sunday. And if you were prohibited, like Sister Angela, you know,
brother, we've been so burdened for her. Brother Jesse is there
now having church with her in her home. Praise God. And then I'm like, I want to
go. Then who'd preach? I mean, you know, it's great. Beautiful stuff. We were fearful
that someone had tempted you and that our labor would be in
vain. Friends, when people are tempted to walk away from the
body, I want you to hear what I'm saying, not what I'm not
saying. When people are tempted to walk away from the body, it's
evidence that they did not belong to Christ. When they walk away. Not when they're tempted. When
they walk away. They left from among us because they were never
of us. We plead. We pray. We press. We pursue one another
in Christ. We pursue Christ together. Friends,
this is the joy of it. And some practical implications
of that, when we get through today, don't just tear out the
door. We're all shy. Okay, except maybe three of us.
We're all shy. So go to the other five people
that are standing in the corner that you're near and say, And if you need a prop, just
take a microphone, I guess. Engage with each other somehow. We were fearful that you would
fall away. Well, look at verse 6 and then
we're done. I know I didn't read it, but I want to say it because
it settles it. We'll pick it up next week. We were fearful that somehow
the tempter had tempted you and that our labor would be in vain.
But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought
us the good news of your faith and the good news of your love
and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to
see us also as we long to see you, For this reason, brothers,
in all our distress and in all of our affliction, we have been
comforted." This is strong. We have been
comforted about you through your faith. Now let me remind you
some stuff that Paul taught in Philippians and that he's reiterating
here. Paul said his suffering, his
imprisonment, his pain, his coldness, everything that he was experiencing,
his hunger, was not even on his mind. They were on his mind. The church was on his mind. in
the midst of their suffering, in the midst of the apostles'
suffering, the people of God in these other cities, specifically
and explicitly the Thessalonian Christians, they were on the
mind of Paul and Silas and Timothy to such a degree that it overwhelmed
them to a burden that they prayed continually, without ceasing,
for their joy. Imagine this. And the answer
to their pain was not praying for God to remove them from persecution. They never, ever, ever prayed
for that. They always prayed for God to
increase the power of the Gospel in the lives of those people
who received it. As not from the words of men,
but the words of God. With power and much affliction,
with great joy, Paul says in chapter 2. So, Paul is telling
us that when we see the peace and the faith and the life of
Christ in each other, that no matter what pain we are experiencing
in the temporal world, that we are okay. You see that? And that's going to be the whole
sermon next week. The power of the gospel in the
church affects our joy in the midst of suffering, as we see
each other grow in joy. That's it. Is that what you're longing for,
church? In all our distress and in all our affliction, we have
been comforted. It's no longer painful. This
stuff is nothing. The pain of not knowing that
you had the joy of Christ was unbearable. I could take it no
more. Now that I know you're okay,
I'm comforted. Comforted. Are you okay? Is your faith true? Is your love for Christ alive? How about those among us? Are
there those amongst us in our small fellowship who still need
the joy of Christ? Are there those sitting right
here with us? Is it you? that are longing to
see that joy. Friends, it only comes through
Christ Jesus. We don't believe on Christ that
He takes away our pain. We believe on Christ so that
our pain is not worthless. As Paul would tell the Romans,
that it prepares us for what? an eternal weight of glory beyond
all comparison. How? As we look to the things
that are unseen rather than the things that are seen. What we
suffer in this life is not what it's about. What Christ suffered
on the cross is what it's about. And it was for our life, for
our joy, for our hope, for our crown, and for our glory. And
I pray that Christ is that for you. He is your crown of life. All I have is Christ. Is that
your song this morning? And I pray by the Lord's grace
that His Word would reach deep into you. Encourage you and strengthen
you and cause you to be the people who He has called you to be in
the midst of anything that might be going wrong. Let's pray. Lord, we are overwhelmed when we think about the greatness
of Your love, of Your glory, of Your power, Your majesty,
Your position above all things. Lord, and yet You relate to us
intimately, not just through the chasm of the cosmos.
or the chasm of sin fallen from Your glory. But Lord, You reached
down into this creation and became one of us, sending Your Son,
Jesus, to walk among us. So Lord, I pray that You would
soften the hearts of the hard, that You would bring to life
the souls of those who are dead. and that they would rejoice in
knowing the Gospel of Jesus as their own, that they would believe
on Jesus Christ this very day, Father, and that it would be
evident by the transformation of their soul, of their mind,
of their heart, of their power, of their affections and all things
as they continually seek Your face, love each other, and proclaim
the Gospel. Father, we thank You that Your
Word is enough And we were attempted to not believe. Lord, please
cause others to pray for us that we might be shaken, Father. That
Your Word would come to us in a time of need. Either through
Your Holy Spirit or through each other and both. For Father, if
You are not walking in us and through us, if You are not the
One who is alive in us, if we are not alive in Christ, we are
not alive. And so, Lord, fill us with all
Your fullness that we might embark this day with joy. In Jesus'
name we pray, Amen. We thank you for listening to
this message today and pray that it's been a blessing to you.
If you have comments, prayer requests, or would just like
to reach out, you can find us on the web at gracetruth.org,
gracetruth.org. Or you can call us 1-877-789-7725. Grace Truth Church is a people
for God's glory, by the power of His grace.