The name of the message is Suffering
for the Gospel. Turn if you would to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 2. We'll continue our study tonight
reading verses 1 to 8 to get the context of the verses. We'll
be studying the first two verses tonight and the topic again is
Suffering for the Gospel. 1 Thessalonians chapter 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 man, but God, which trieth our heart. For neither
at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak
of covetousness, God as witness. Nor of man 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 cherished 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 ye were
dear unto us. In these days we find ourselves
in, and in the days of the past and in the days that will come,
until that last great day that God has ordained for it all to
be finished. All we who are the people of
God need for revival and for refreshing is the preaching of
the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The preaching of
Christ as the only Savior, the substitute of His people, the
great law-fulfiller and justice-satisfier in the place of His people. This
is all that we need to be revived and to be refreshed. The preaching
of how sinners are saved by Christ alone, plus absolutely nothing
else. No creature merit at all. All
redeemed by his shed blood, which paid the ransom demanded of God
for the salvation of sinners. And this all occurred at the
cross of Calvary, when Christ gave up his life in the place
of his people. Also, we who are God's preachers,
we proclaim that our Lord arose from the grave for our justification,
for the justification of His people. This is what needs to
be proclaimed, that the work of salvation is complete, and
it is completed by the Lord Jesus Christ in Him alone. The preaching
of the gospel is the only great battering ram that shall dash
down the bulwarks of iniquity. This is the great light which
shall scatter the darkness. We do not need new schemes or
new plans. God's ordained sent preachers
need but to preach the word, need to but preach the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God has ordained by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Oh, what power then
we see that there is in the preached word of God. And this is all
by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. This is the very truth
that Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
of God, declared to the saints at Thessalonica in the first
chapter of the epistle, he said, knowing, beloved, your election
of God. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance. Paul knew that the results of
his preaching were not by anything that he's done, but was all by
the power of God the Holy Spirit. And our dear brother Paul was
on a missionary journey that our Lord Jesus Christ had appointed
for him. Ordained by our great majestic, all-powerful God before
time began, and those who were with him were there with Paul
because of God's eternal purpose as well. The door that was open
for them to go into Macedonia was according to God's perfect
eternal plan. And the opening of Lydia's heart
to believe the gospel that Paul preached was by the life-giving
power of God the Holy Spirit. and this was also predetermined
by God before this world was created. The painful scourging
from the wicked men in Philippi that Paul and Silas received
for preaching the gospel and being thrown into the prison
was all part of God's sovereign eternal plan. We know this because
the Philippian jailer and some of the members of his family,
of his household, were ordained to eternal life and it was their
appointed time their appointed time of love to hear the gospel
and believe, to have Christ preach to them and believe. God himself
directed Paul and his company to go from Philippi to Thessalonica. Opposition from those who hated
the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel were just as much part
of God's ordained plan as his elect who received Christ Jesus
our Lord. In his gospel we see this spoken
of in verses 1 and 2. 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 with much contention. Now the same can be said of events
which occur in every preacher's life, in every life of God's
saints. in any given generation. All
things happen according to the will and purpose of God for our
good and for God's glory, even the events which occur which
we do not understand. Now in the first chapter of 1
Thessalonians, which we finished in our last study, Paul commends
the saints at Thessalonica for their love for the Lord Jesus
Christ, and their love for his gospel, and their love for one
another. and for continuing in the faith,
even though they had suffered much affliction for doing so.
And we see he continues to exhort them in chapter 2. Let's read
verse 1 again of this chapter. For yourselves, brethren, know
our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain. How this
truth must have blessed Paul's heart in the hearts of the Thessalonian
believers! What joy this must have brought
them, knowing that the preaching of the gospel at Thessalonica
was not in vain. Paul knew that he could plant
the seeds of the gospel truce, and others may water, but he
knew that only God can give the increase. Now the earnest, sincere
desire of all of God's preachers is to see sinners come to Christ
by the gift of God's faith, by the regenerating power of the
Holy Spirit of God. But we who are called of God
to preach His gospel, we know that the Holy Spirit is the only
one who can regenerate a lost sinner. He's the only one who
can regenerate those we preach to. He's the only one who can
make the gospel of God's grace in and through Christ alone effectual
to the sinner. And God has ordained by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Therefore the gospel
must be preached and it cannot be compromised. The preacher
dare not water down the word of God to try to make it palatable
to the natural man. Now the word of God admonishes
God's servants to be gentle unto all men. Peradventure perhaps,
God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 25. But being gentle does not mean
that we are to hide the truth. No, as the truth is what our
Lord uses to set his born-again blood-washed children free. Paul
is going to address the consequences of preaching the gospel in this
chapter, and we can see in our text that there is a cost to
preaching the gospel. Paul and Silas were cast into
prison for preaching the gospel. We count ourselves blessed that
we live in a place where the preaching of the gospel is not
done under threat of death. But it is not so in much of this
earth. Even now there are those in this world who think it their
sacred duty to kill any who name the name of Christ. And Paul
is not dealing with a general hatred to the gospel that is
common to all men who have not faith. No, he's speaking of the
ministry that God has assigned him to, and specifically of his
time in Macedonia among the Philippians and the Thessalonians, as we
will see in this chapter. In the previous chapter, he spoke
of the manner of man that he and Timothy and Silvanus was
among them. In this chapter, he continues
that theme, but centers more on the manner of preaching or
the attitude he came in and preaching the gospel to them, having been
sent by God to do so. And every gospel preacher is
sent by God to preach and proclaim the gospel. If the gospel isn't
preached, if people don't hear, then we know that no one No one
will call upon the name of the Lord for salvation until they
believe that he is our sovereign creator who became a man so that
he could redeem his people from the curse of the law. If the
gospel isn't preached, if people don't hear, then no one will
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ by himself purged our sins, the
sins of his people, by his perfect obedience to the will of God,
his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. And this
was God's will that moved him to shed his precious blood on
Calvary's cross to give his life for us. If the gospel isn't preached,
if people don't hear, then no one will believe that Jesus Christ
has risen from the grave. and has entered into heaven to
appear in the presence of God for His elect. If the gospel
isn't preached, if people don't hear, then no one will believe
that Jesus Christ is the blessed surety of His people, who, as
the risen, exalted God-man by His sovereign power, will make
sure that all of His chosen blood-bought children are kept by faith unto
salvation. If the gospel isn't preached,
if people don't hear, then no one will have the assurance,
the saints at Thessalonica had, the same assurance that God gives
all of his born-again, blood-washed people, unless they believe the
true gospel of God's sovereign, electing, redeeming, sanctifying
grace, they will not have this hope. And we know that absolutely
no one is going to believe the truth unless they hear the truth.
And no one is going to hear the truth unless God sends one of
his ordained ministers to preach the truth. We know that no one
is going to believe the truth. They hear the gospel unless God,
the Holy Spirit, regenerates them, which means they're born
again. He regenerates the lost sinner, making the gospel of
salvation in and through Christ alone effectual for the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Now when Paul brings
forth that his coming to them was not in vain, this brings
forth also that he did not come to them with the gospel in pomp
or circumstance or in vanity. He came in meekness, beloved.
This was Paul who, by the grace of God, he came in meekness.
As a man, he could have come otherwise. He was a gifted lawyer,
a student of the word. He studied at the feet of one
of the most famous teachers during his time, and he would have been
able to come to them as a great theologian. But he did not trust
in his flesh. He did not trust in what he knew.
Also, he knew that the power of the gospel he preached and
its efficaciousness did not rest in the realm of men, but in the
Holy Spirit of God. The suffering and shameful treatment
he refers to in verse 2 is that which he encountered after the
church at Philippi was established in Lydia's house. There is no
indication that Paul openly spoke against the man-filled gods of
the Macedonians, but the gospel has a way of assigning things,
especially false gods, to their proper place, in that they're
just idols, worthless idols. Now people were turning away
from their idols, we know that. from the first chapter, that
the Thessalonian believers, they turned from idols to worship
the one true and living God. So people were turning away from
their idols all by the grace of God, and this was affecting
those who made the idols. Their religious-based economy,
it began to suffer. And Paul was tinkering with man's
treasures when he was doing that, with their pockets in their eyes,
and they decided that Paul and Silas were better off in jail.
And we know that their venom was simply an instrument employed
by God in the providence of salvation because we know, beloved, there
was a jailer in Philippi who was one of the elect who had
to receive the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. He
would now hear the word in power, not in word only. No, some of
the prisoners no doubt heard the word, but they didn't hear
it in power as the Philippian jailer did. But he must, by the
will of God and the decree of God, he must hear the word of
God with power because it was part of God's almighty purpose
that he must hear the gospel. He was ordained by God to experience
the sovereign almighty power of God and the saving of his
soul. He had to hear the gospel, beloved,
because his sins had been paid for, they had been remitted on
the cross, paid in full by the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's turn
to Acts chapter 16, and we'll look at this portion here in
verses 25 to 31. And at midnight Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations
of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were
opened, and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper of
the prison awakened out of his sleep. Seeing the prison doors
open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing
the prisoners had fled. He knew that if any of the prisoners
had fled, that it was a death sentence for him. But oh, the
restraining power of God. He kept all those prisoners right
there. Not one of them took off. What do you think would happen
if a prison door suddenly swung open all through this country?
Well, people would take right off. They take right off, but
we see here the almighty power of God's hand. We see that God's
restraining power is on display here because not one of the prisoners
had fled. And look in Acts 16 verse 28,
but Paul cried with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm for
we are all here. Then he called for a light and
sprang in and came in. Trembling and fell down before
Paul and Silas and bought them out and said sirs. What must
I do to be saved? Well, there's nothing you can
do to be saved in your own self Look look at this wonderful answer
this wonderful answer that Paul and Silas given and they said
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ And thou shall be saved in thy
house. Oh, well, he was granted the faith to believe wouldn't
he and he believed he trusted Christ and So the gospel preacher
stands up and proclaims the word of God amidst resistance, sometimes
from within the church and sometimes from without, just as Paul did
in Philippi in the midst of contentious men. Our dear brother boldly
declared the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. And
we who proclaim the word of God, we know that God's word will
find its target. It will hit the mark just as
the scriptures proclaims it will. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
chapter 55, Isaiah 55 verse 11 the scriptures declare, So shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Therefore the gospel
must be preached and proclaimed. is the preaching of the gospel
is vital, and it will not be in vain. And that's the truth.
That's the absolute truth, whether people believe it or not. Now
let's read verse 2. 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. We see then that even after Paul
and Silas were treated shamefully, as they were scourged and thrown
into the prison while they were in Philippi, even though they
were not criminals, they were still scourged and cast into
prison, treated shamefully. The only thing they had done
that offended these wicked men in that city was to preach the
gospel. Even though all these things
had occurred, they were still bold in preaching the gospel
to the Thessalonian believers because they knew, beloved, they
knew that their labor was not in vain. Now, beloved, you would
be surprised by the number of professing Christians who, when
a little wave of worldly trouble rocks their little vessel, their
little boat of life, they make statements like, well, if God's
going to let something like this happen to me after all I've done
for him, I quit. I don't want to have nothing
to do anymore with Christianity." Well, we know people who've said
that kind of thing, eh? In religion, you'd hear it all
the time. You'd hear it all the time. Do
you know why they say things like that? because they were
never Christians. They had empty professions, and
they had nothing to do with God in the first place. And God had
done absolutely nothing for them. All they had done was made an
empty religious profession. God keeps his sheep. He keeps them, and he keeps them
in the faith. He keeps them in the faith. Not
only did Paul and Silas continue to preach the Gospel after they
suffered excruciating pain for doing so at Philippi, but like
Peter and the other apostles, they counted it all joy that
our Lord Jesus Christ had counted them worthy to suffer for His
glory. Listen to Acts chapter 5 verses
41 and 42. The apostles had been arrested
for preaching the gospel, and the religious, who's who, they
had told them to stop. You can't be preaching that gospel
anymore. You need to just stop. Look over
in Acts chapter 5 verses 41 and 42. The council had told them
to stop preaching the gospel, but Peter and the apostles departed
the council rejoicing. Look at Acts 5 verse 41 and 42. And they departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name. And then look what it says in
Acts 5 42. Did it stop them from preaching
the gospel? No way at all. No way at all. And daily in the
temple, it says in Acts 5 42, and daily in the temple and in
every house, they cease not to teach and preach Christ Jesus.
God's preachers, whether we're preaching in the pulpit, or whether
we're talking to someone on the street, or whether we're talking
to someone we know, if the Lord opens up a door of utterance
for us, we will speak boldly about the things that Christ
has done for us. Oh my, it's wonderful. Christ is the Savior
of my soul. I love this. He's the Savior
of my soul. He's the only one who saved my
soul. I'm telling everybody I know,
If the Lord gives me opportunity, opens up those doors of utterance,
I'll tell them about Christ. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful, the salvation that the believer has in Christ. So
even though they were taken to the council of the apostles,
they didn't stop preaching the gospel, no. Even though the council
told them, you can't do that. Well, it says in Daly and the
Temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach
Christ Jesus. Christ is their all in all. He's
everything to them. He's absolutely everything to
them. Now Paul, in Silas it says in
verse 2, but even after 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. They faced much
contention, didn't they? They faced much opposition, but
they just kept preaching the gospel. Knowing that it is the
power of God unto salvation, they just kept preaching and
proclaiming the gospel of the free grace of God in Christ,
that salvation is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, in Him
alone, that the believer is only redeemed by the precious blood
of Christ, that our sins are bought and paid for by the precious
blood of Christ, that we are clothed in the spotless righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lord our righteousness.
Oh, He's the only one who's our salvation. And Paul knew, beloved
of God, Paul knew He had no confidence in the flesh, we know that. He
had no confidence in his own strength. And I'll tell you what,
every gospel preacher has no confidence in our own strength.
No, we don't. And Paul had no confidence in
the flesh. And he said, who's sufficient
for these things? Who's sufficient to preach the gospel? My, we're
all unprofitable servants, aren't we? And we're all sinners saved
by grace. And so Paul knew that he did
not preach the gospel in his own strength, in his own boldness.
Their boldness that they preached the gospel with was not in the
flesh. They were bold unto God. They
were bold unto speak the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
we see clearly set forth in verse two in the latter part of the
verse. We are bold in our God by his strength. to speak unto
you the gospel of God with much contention. Beloved of God, it
was Christ working in them that gave them this boldness that
they had. And we see that they preach the
gospel in Thessalonica amidst much contention. And we know
that's much contention from wicked men, from wicked men. And these
faithful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ had no way of knowing
what these wicked men might do to them when they went into Thessalonica.
They had no idea what these wicked men would do to them. Now, from
experience, they knew what wicked self-righteous religionists might
do. They knew that. They had tasted
that before, hadn't they? But our Lord Jesus Christ had
called them to preach his gospel. And by his grace, and by his
strength, and by his power working in them, working in them when
they were bold in their God to continue to preach the same gospel,
the only gospel that brought such painful sufferings upon
them at Philippi. And this is true of every single
preacher of God. We preach the gospel by his strength,
by his strength. And we preach the same gospel
that Paul and Silas in Timothy proclaim salvation in Christ
in Christ alone and this should encourage all the saints of God
this should encourage those who are called to preach the gospel
and this should also encourage all who are called to be faithful
witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ in his gospel and that's all
his elect never forget that right from the beginning of our glorious
walk by faith with our Lord Jesus Christ we are made aware of the
hatred that is in the hearts of unregenerate people. Did you
know in your unregenerate state the hatred that natural man has
for Christ and for the gospel? Have you ever thought about why
you despised Christ so much in your natural state? Why you did
not want to hear the gospel in your natural state was because
all men are dead spiritually in our natural state. So we know
and I know I experienced this right from the beginning of my
conversion. And I know you did too. People
looking at you like, what happened? What's happened to them? Why
are they different? And the hatred in unregenerate
men's heart is very quickly manifested to the born-again, blood-washed
child of God, even at the beginning of their walk. It just becomes
more and more manifested as we walk and journey through this
world. And we just marvel that we were in the same state, but
our great God has had mercy upon us. We are born again by the
Holy Spirit of God. We're granted faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are given a hunger that thirsts
after righteousness, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. We hunger
and we thirst after righteousness. We desire now to hear the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us such peace and such
joy to look into his word and to hear the gospel preached.
And our own loved ones sometimes, members of our own family, and
those who we socialized with at one time, our co-workers,
Especially those who are steeped in false religion will let us
know right away that they want nothing to do with the Christ
of the Holy Scriptures, nor His gospel that gives Him all the
glory. That is the difference between
what we believe and what religionists believe. We give all the glory
to God, everything, from beginning to end, salvation is of the Lord.
He gets all the glory. In religion, well, man wants
the glory in himself. He has to say, I made a decision
for Christ. I did this, I, I, I, I, I. Well, the middle letter of sin
is I, S-I-N, my. And I know, I speak from experience,
because I was right there. I was right in the midst of that
stuff. Self-seeking, Vicki and I, we call them glory seekers.
People seeking glory for themselves. Glory seekers, and that's what
I was in religion. That's when I was blinded by
my own self-righteousness. Oh my, praise God. Praise be
to God that he delivered me from that situation. Mine, God's people. God's people. We find opposition
from those who we once socialized with. And they wonder why. They
count it strange that why don't they do the things with us that
they used to do? Whether it's a lifestyle of lasciviousness
or agreeing with them and their ungodly false religious beliefs. Now we don't agree with them.
Now we don't want to go out and do the things we used to do with
them. Why not? Well, because we're new creatures
in Christ. We've experienced the miracle of the new birth.
And beloved of God, we must never waver. May our great God continually
remind us to realize the weakness of our flesh and to lay to our
heart the words from our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep these evident
in our minds. Without me, ye can do nothing. Oh, may that be burned into our
hearts, beloved. Without Christ, we can do nothing.
Without Him, we can do nothing. May we cry out to our great God
daily to strengthen us with all might in the inner man so that
we can be bold for his glory in the face of all opposition
and in the suffering for the gospel. Oh may God be pleased
to make it so. Amen.