Turn back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 2. I did a trial run on this message today.
I was thinking about bringing it on the radio, so I taped it.
It took me 13 minutes. 13 minutes to go through all
my notes. I hope I can double that tonight.
I'd hate to have you drive so far and only get 13 minutes out
of it. I know, I've talked to different
preachers, pastors, and often I've had them tell me that they
struggle trying not to preach so long. I honestly have the
opposite. I struggle trying to make it
long enough. I don't know why, maybe it's
this mentality I was born with, but I struggle trying to get
30 minutes out of it. So let's look at this and we'll
see where it goes. The title of the message is,
True Preaching is Never In Vain. It's Never In Vain. When Paul spoke to people who
were enemies of the gospel, he had sharp words for them. He was not afraid to rebuke them.
He was not afraid to tell them the truth. We saw that last Sunday
morning in his message to Felix, how he reasoned with him of righteousness,
temperance, and judgment. But when he preached to believers,
and I was thinking of you, I was picturing you in my mind as I
was looking at this today. When he preached to believers,
he poured out his heart to them. He poured out his affections
to them. He was not afraid. Paul was not
afraid to wear his emotions on his sleeve, so to speak. He was
not afraid to let any of God's children know how much he loved
them. Not afraid to do that. He poured
out his heart. He let them know that he truly,
truly desired to see them and to impart unto them a blessing. to be a blessing to them. I often
pray, I often pray that the Lord would make me a blessing to you
and that we would be a blessing to one another. And Paul made great sacrifices
so that he might preach the gospel to God's elect. He endured, he
said he endured all things for the elect's sake. He was in many dangers by his
own countrymen. That's why it says over, I believe
it's in 2 Corinthians 11. He was in many dangers among
the heathen. We've been going through the book of Acts. That's
been interesting, hasn't it? That's been interesting, I think,
to see the early church and how, what Paul endured and how he
traveled about and preached and put in prison and get out of
prison, put back in trouble and out of trouble. You know, it
just followed him. But he did this, and he was imprisoned often.
Yet he counted not his life dear unto him, he said. He said, I
do not count my life dear unto me that I might finish my course,
that he might be able to minister, to preach the gospel to God's
elect until God took him home. He said, I don't count my life
dear unto me. Now he says here in verse 1,
You know, Paul was confident of this, you know our entrance
in unto you was not in vain. When we came to you, there was
no vain show about it. We didn't come in as pomp and
display, no vain show. I remember back years ago in
a conference that we had and somebody came in a cape. I can't
say the name, we're on the internet. We go on the internet, but I
remember somebody came in a cape. Vain show. You know Dan. A vain display. Paul said, we didn't do that.
We didn't come into town attracting attention to ourselves. We attract attention to the gospel.
Oh, would God really do that? But not to ourselves. Paul had
a clear conscience. concerning his motives for preaching
to them. And they knew, Paul said, you
know we were genuine. You know it. And Paul's preaching
to them was not in vain. God saved many of them. Let's
look at this back over in Acts chapter 17. Let's look at this. We've been going through this. Back in Acts chapter 17, this
is who he's preaching to. He's Thessalonians. In verse
1, Paul, it says, Now when they had passed through Amphipolis
and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the
Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three
Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening
and alleging that Christ's much needs have suffered, and risen
again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto
you, is Christ. And some of them believed, and
consorted with Paul and Silas. And of the devout Greeks a great
multitude believed, and of the chief women not a few. But the
Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain
lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set
the whole city on an uproar." And Paul will tell us here in
just a few minutes how he was shamefully entreated when he
came to this place. But his preaching was not in
vain. The Word of God never returns
void. Preaching the Word of God is
never vain, never. It always, tonight, right now,
the Word of God will accomplish its purpose in every one of us,
whatever it is, whatever situation I might be in. or whatever the
situation is, the Word of God will accomplish its purpose.
It'll do that. It always does. We may not always
see the fruit of it. We may die before we see the
fruit of it. But it will have its effect.
It will accomplish its purpose. I say, and I believe, that years
after Henry's gone, there'll still be fruit being come out
of that. All those years of preaching,
all those years of sowing, there'll still be fruit come out of that,
even though he won't be here to see it. We may not be around
to see the effects of it and the fruit of it, but it never
returns void. It always accomplishes what he's
sent it to accomplish. And the subject matter of Paul's
preaching was not useless, vain, philosophical, nothing. It was
not that. It was divine truth. What we
read here in this epistle is divine truth. Every word of it. Paul received the gospel from
the Lord himself. And everything he had to preach,
it was given to him by the Lord. He was under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. And what he had to preach was truth. It was divine truth. There was
no deception about it. There was no dishonesty about
it. Paul said, we did it honestly, truthfully. As he said to the
Corinthians, over in 2 Corinthians 4, 2, we have renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the
word of God deceitfully." Paul said, we have not handled the
word of God deceitfully. And Paul had no worldly motive
for preaching the gospel to them. He wasn't after what they owned. He was after them. There's a
difference. A difference. He was after them. In fact, he suffered much for
his preaching. He says here in verse 2, That
he was shamefully treated. This is the Lord's servant. This
is the ambassador of Christ. If an ambassador came from another
country to here, and we treated him like Paul was treated, wouldn't
that be shameful? What would that say of us? This
is God's ambassador. And he went to Thessalonians,
to Thessalonica, and he said, we were treated like criminals. We desired their salvation and
they treated us like criminals. And we preach with much contention. We do not have to go looking
for a fight. We don't have to go looking for
a fight. It will come to us if we faithfully preach the gospel. Going through the book of Acts,
every time Paul went somewhere to preach, the Jews showed up
to cause trouble. Stirred the whole city. put them
in an uproar. It will come to us if we faithfully
preach the gospel of God's glory. A gospel that does not stir up
trouble among unbelievers and self-righteous religious people
is not God's gospel. A gospel that does not divide
the sheep from the goats is not God's gospel. It's not the gospel
Men hate the gospel of Christ alone, grace alone, today as
much as ever. They don't like it any more today
than they did a thousand years ago or two thousand years ago.
They still hate it. Because it gives God all the
glory. It gives Jesus Christ the preeminence. And lost men,
even religious men, and they're the worst, hate that. Hate that. They want the glory.
They want the attention. The gospel that's of God gives
Christ all the attention. If we do not suffer for it, listen,
if we do not suffer for it, it's because we're not saying anything.
I said this to someone, oh, it's been some time ago. They told
me, they said, you won't get any response on the radio. And
I said, well, is it because we're not saying anything? I said,
surely if you're saying something, somebody's going to get stirred
up. That's something that's been
troubling me. Am I saying it? I emailed a pastor and I asked
him about that. I said, are we saying enough
on the radio, on the airwaves? I said, are we saying enough?
Are we holding back? If we preach the gospel as it is, It's going
to stir up trouble now. You might as well expect it.
It's going to cause trouble. Look through the history of the
Bible. Just look through the history of the Bible. No one
ever preached the gospel. No one ever believed the gospel
without suffering for it. No one. No one. Look where we
live. We live on the enemy's turf.
Satan is an enemy. Natural men are enemies to the
God we love and the gospel we preach. It's going to stir up
trouble. The scripture said that a believer
over in 1 John 2.15, he cannot be a friend of the world and
a friend of God. He said that's not possible.
One of them is an enemy. One of them is counted as an
enemy. And then note, Paul said, we
were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel with much
contention. You know, contention. I don't
like contention. I'll be the first. I think my
family knows I don't like contention. I don't like it. But contention
over the gospel is to be expected, and we don't run from it. We
don't run from it. And it has a way of sharpening
the blade. It's like a knife. You take it
and you put it against a stone, which you would think would do
damage to the knife, but instead it sharpens that blade. And contention
that comes over the gospel, I tell you this, it sharpens the blade.
It does. Trouble never stopped God's man
from faithfully preaching the gospel. Never. Now Paul says, for our exhortation
was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in God. Our exhortation,
he said, was not of deceit. It's hard to find an honest man,
let alone an honest preacher, isn't it? It's truly hard to
find an honest preacher. Where God has one honest preacher,
Satan has a thousand dishonest men. He has them. Paul says, our preaching was
not deceptive. It was not deceptive in any way,
shape, or form. We did not have an ulterior motive
in our preaching when we came preaching to you the gospel of
God. When Paul preached, you knew exactly what he said. I'm
telling you, you knew exactly where he was at when he was preaching.
He knew exactly, because he said it with great plainness of speech. He said, we use great plainness
of speech. If you leave here and you do
not understand what I have said, that's my fault. That's my fault. You may not
believe it, but you can understand it. You can understand it. Paul had great comfort in the
quietness of his own conscience concerning his preaching. He
said it was not in vain, it was not deceptive, nor, he said,
of uncleanness. The gospel that Paul preached
was pure and holy. It was the everlasting gospel.
It was God's gospel. God gave it to him. He said there
was no uncleanness in it. Listen now. The gospel that Paul
preached was worthy of God. It was worthy of God. I find
it embarrassing to call what many today call gospel, it's
not worthy of God. No, God didn't come up with that.
When you study the Scripture and you see who God is, and you
hear a lot of this preaching today, you know that's not worthy
of God. Paul said we didn't do this with
uncleanness, nor of guile. Paul never made pretense to anything
that he was doing. He never made any pretense. He
had no secular motives in his preaching. He wanted to see God
save them. He wanted to see God save sinners.
He wanted to see Christ glorified. That's what he wanted to see. And that's the heart of everyone
whom God calls to preach, truly. called to preach. And then he
points out that he is only a steward. A steward, the scripture says,
must be found faithful. Paul recognized his great responsibility that had been laid upon him. This is a great responsibility,
taken seriously. The man understands what he's
doing and the gospel he's been entrusted with. This is a great,
heavy responsibility. Often the prophet said, the burden
of the word of the Lord. Spurgeon said, if it's not a
burden now, it will be when you stand before God. Paul says this, we were allowed,
right now, this evening, I'm allowed of God to stand God has
allowed us to come here. We are allowed into His presence
through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's allowed us in to the Holy
of Holies through the Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege. What a blessing that we have
been allowed of God. But he says here, we were allowed
of God to be put in trust with the Gospel. The Gospel of
His glory. the gospel concerning his son. He said, I have been entrusted
with it. We the apostles have been entrusted
with it. Others have been entrusted with it. We are entrusted with
it right now. We are. Do we realize that we
have been entrusted with the gospel of God's glory? Blah, blah, blah. And being entrusted
with it, We dare not corrupt it by adding to it, taking away
from it, or trying to gain by it. We preach it as God gave
it, and to God be the glory. We speak as one entrusted with
a great treasure, the gospel of God's glory. Is there a greater
treasure than that? Not on this earth. No. This small group right here,
this small group has been entrusted with the gospel concerning his
son. What a humble, that ought to
humble us, shouldn't it? That should humble us so much
that we've been allowed of God to be entrusted with it. Who would you entrust your children
with, Sarah? Something so precious as that? I'll tell you what,
it wouldn't be just anybody. I don't think we, when the boys
were growing up, I don't know that we left one or two people
in all their time. I don't think we stayed with anybody.
I don't think we left them with anyone hardly at all. We were
like a couple of hens, you know, around us. When we did let them
stay with somebody, you entrusted them with everything they had. Entrusted. Paul said he's entrusted
with the gospel. And being entrusted with the
gospel. We preach it. Not as pleasing
men. Our objective is not to please
men. I don't care if the President of the United States comes in
here and sits down. We had this example last week.
Paul standing before a figure. Here's the governor of Judea
set up by Caesar. And Paul stands before him. He
didn't give him flattering words, did he? And Paul didn't have
an attitude when he preached to him either. But he preached
the truth to them. He didn't take the edge off of
it. Not as pleasing men. Our objective is not to please
men, but to please God who tries our hearts. God knows our hearts. He knows my heart. He knows yours.
He knows all our thoughts. He knows our intents. Nothing
is hid from God. Men-pleasers. Find out what the
people want to hear, then they'll arrange their message around
it. That's what men-pleaders do. But Paul said, we did not
use flattering words. We did not come into town and
brag on the flesh. When Paul came into town, he
no doubt preached the corruption of human nature from top to bottom,
from the throne to the gutter. It's all the same. Human nature
is all the same. It just wears a little different
dress from time to time. But it's all the same. And Paul
said, we didn't use flattering words. We preached original sin.
We preached total depravity. He did. We didn't flatter people. He was standing before that congregation
and here he had some Jews in the synagogue. Some of the best
people in town. And they're listening to him.
Most religious, most respected people in town. And Paul's saying,
you're corrupt. All flesh is corrupt. All men
by nature are totally depraved. Oh, that's not flattering words,
is it? You don't flatter somebody like that. We didn't brag on the flesh.
There's nothing good in this flesh. Nothing. And nor did we give you vain
hopes and false peace through our flattering words." He didn't
do that. No, Paul preached the truth. Nor a cloak of covetousness. God is witness. He's calling
God in again as a witness. Paul was not trying to get rich
through preaching the gospel. He was not like false apostles
who through covetousness with vain words made merchandise of
the people. He didn't do that. He said we
didn't have a cloak of covetousness. In other words, here's what he's
saying. We didn't cover ourselves with
gospel language and underneath all that was a covetous heart.
Underneath all that we were desiring to have what you've got, to get
what you have. And we used gospel, the gospel
language would put a cloak over us so you couldn't see it. You
know, you put a cloak over you, you can't see what's underneath,
can you? Our Lord said to those Pharisees, He said, on the outside,
you look beautiful. You're all decorated up. But on the inside, you're full
of dead men's bones. Paul said, we're not like that.
He said, we're not like that. Nor of men, he said, sought we
glory. He did not court the favor of
men. God's man will not court the
favor of men. He'll not do that. And God's
man does not seek titles. They loved to be called rabbi,
didn't they? Teacher. Rabbi. Doctor. I wouldn't walk
across the street to hear of somebody as a doctor of divinity.
I wouldn't walk across the street, because it tells me he's not
been humbled. I will walk across the street to hear a wretch preach,
because Paul said, oh, wretched man that I am. Now that's the
kind of person, I will go across the street, or I'll drive a long
distance to hear. But a doctor? That man hasn't
been humbled to call that himself, to even allow himself to be called
doctor of divinity. Well, doctrine, divinity, we
know that much. Paul said, we don't know what
we think we know. We don't know what we think we know. Not at
all. But listen here, Paul said, but
instead, listen. Well, he said, first of all,
as an apostle, we could have been supported by you. We could
have demanded And rightfully so that we'd be taken care of
by the church and the churches. He said we had that power. But
instead we were gentle. Gentle. And I tell you what,
he's making reference here as a mother is to her child. We
were gentle like a mother is to her baby. That's how gentle
we were with you. Tenderhearted toward them. Paul
loved them as his own children. He did. And I truly believe that
a true pastor does. He loved that congregation as
if they were his own children. If he's God's pastor, Paul called Timothy his son in
the faith. He said to those Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians 4.14, as my beloved sons, I warn you. I warn you. This is how we preach to the
sheep. Gentle and affectionately. We preach the truth in love.
Paul says in verse 8, affectionately desirous of you. Not yours. You see, false prophets
are affectionately desirous of yours, what you have. They're
just trying to figure out a way to get it. Paul said, we were
desirous of you. I want to hear someone preach
to me that wants to. I want to hear someone preach
to me that truly desires my good, eternal good. That's who I want
to hear preach. Paul said, we not only desire
to give you the gospel only, but ourselves also. We sacrifice
ourselves to your good. The Lord's true servants are
willing to spend and be spent for the gospel. Why? To give the answer, because
you're dear to us. Whatever is dear to God is dear
to them. dear to His people. Whatever
is dear to His heart is dear to your heart. And God's preachers do more than
deliver a message. It's not like He came into town,
delivered the message, say, here it is, and then leave. No. They not only deliver the message,
but they give of themselves. They pour out their heart. It's
from my heart to your heart. That's true preaching. From the
heart of God to my heart to your heart. That's true preaching. Paul said,
we desire not just to give you the gospel only, but ourselves
also. True preaching is not heartless
preaching. I've heard some of that. But now, true preaching is not
heartless. It's from the heart. It is affectionate
preaching. Oh, that you would to God that
you would know Him, that you would grow in Him, that you would
grow in knowledge and in grace of Him. Paul always wrote, grace
and peace be multiplied to you. Always. And he meant it. He meant
it every time he wrote it. It's preaching the truth
in love. Now let me close with these few words. True preaching,
that is of God, is this. First of all, it's true. Is that
simple? It's true. There's no lie in
it. It's true. It's the Word of God.
And then secondly, it's powerful. Paul said in the first chapter,
our gospel came to you, not in word only, but in power and in
demonstration of the Spirit. And then thirdly, true preaching
is affectionate. It's sent from the heart of God
to the heart of His people. The gospel, when it comes in
power, comes from the heart of God to your heart. And then it
concerns Jesus Christ. True preaching always concerns
Jesus Christ. Take Him out of it, we don't
have a message to preach. It concerns who He is. It concerns
His work. It concerns where He's at now.
Concerns Him. It's all about Him. And true
preaching is concerned with how God can be a just God and have
anything to do with a wretch like me. Everywhere Paul preached, that's
what he preached. How God can be just and justify the ungodly.
And then it concerns our need of Christ. True preaching always
concerns our need of Him. as our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption through preaching that is of
God, is never in vain.