1 Thessalonians 2, I want you to just look at a few of these verses
concerning preaching. That's what the Apostle is speaking
about here, preaching. Preaching the gospel. Lesson
titled what this morning? Preaching the gospel. In 1 Thessalonians 2, he begins
this way. For yourselves, brethren, know
that our entrance into you, our coming to you, preaching the
gospel to you, that it was not in vain. It wasn't useless. It was not unprofitable. 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 preaching, our exhortation,
was not of error, not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile. But as we were allowed of God
to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing
men, but God which triumphed our hearts. For neither at any
time used we flattering words, as you know. Nor a cloak of covetousness
God is witness. Nor of men sought we glory, neither
of you nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome
as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you,
even as a nurse 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 soul, because you were
dear unto us." Now let's look at some of these verses. Let's
go back here to verse 1. You yourselves, brethren, know
our entrance unto you. You yourselves know, he said,
Whether or not our preaching profited you. Now I think sometimes
it's good, instead of the preacher having to explain what he preaches,
just ask the congregation that he preaches to. The priest asked
the Lord Jesus one time, they said, what about your doctrine? What are you teaching? And he
said, why are you asking me? Ask those who heard me. I think
that's a good way sometimes to look at it. If you want to know
what the preacher is preaching, if you want to know the doctrine,
the teaching that he's setting forth, then go ask those who
are listening to it. That's good for me to confront
you with this morning. It's good for me to ask you,
what am I preaching? And it's good for me to ask you
this, is my preaching useless to you? If what I'm saying from the Scriptures
is proper to you, or is it empty to you? See, I can tell that. I can tell that. You ask me,
and I know what I'm preaching. And I know if it's helping me
or not, but I don't know if it's helping you or not. You'll have
to answer that question. That's what Paul is saying, isn't
it? You yourselves know, brethren, what effect my preaching had
upon you. That's what he's saying. It doesn't
do, it doesn't do, for you to come to me and pat me on the
shoulder and say, good job, pastor, good job. I appreciate that,
but that don't tell me nothing. That don't tell me nothing. It
don't tell me anything for you to say, boy, I love the way old
Bruce preaches. I just love the way he preaches.
Well, I'm glad you love it, but what am I saying to your heart?
See that? See that? There's a fellow who
told a little story one time about this. Paul was talking
about this man being up on this high pinnacle. And looking down
over this big valley, beautiful valley, and he stood there looking
down and his mouth was wide open. Somebody walked up to him and
said, what are you looking at? What are you seeing? He said,
I don't know, it's so wonderful I can't explain it. See, that's not enough to say
that about the preaching, is it? It's not enough to say, oh,
Bruce, he's so wonderful I just can't explain it. That ain't
enough, is it? What am I saying to your heart? Is it doing you
any good? That's what we're saying this
morning. That's what the apostle Paul says. Yourselves know, brethren,
that our coming to you, our preaching to you, it was not useless. It was not in vain. It was not
fruitless. What effect did his preaching
have upon you? He asked them to answer that.
We'll look back here in chapter 1 with me. Look here. Look here
at his preaching. And boy, we see here the effect.
Look in verse 5 of chapter 1. For our gospel, that's what he
came preaching. Our gospel. He came unto you
in word. See that? See that? He came to you in word. Now what does he mean by that?
He said, when I preached the gospel, you understood what I
was saying. I preached the gospel in such
a way that your understanding was opened and you knew what
I was talking about. Intellectually, in your mind,
you knew what I was saying. It was, first and foremost, emotional. It was intellectually. When you
and I set forth the gospel to people, we set it forth in a
way that they understand what we're saying. If you leave here
this morning and you don't understand what I say, interrupt me. I've
not done you any good. Paul said the gospel came in
word. Thou shalt hear without a preacher. What does a preacher do? He proclaims
this. He sets forth the sense. That's what Brother Larry does
in the Sunday School class. He takes these things and he
sets them forth to us in an intellectual manner. And we understand what
he said. Paul said it came in word. But
he didn't stop there, did he? He didn't stop there. Dealing
with a man's intellect is not enough. That's not enough. Just to gain knowledge is not
enough. But he goes ahead and says this,
Our gospel came not in word only, look at this, but also in power. What does he mean by that? He means when I set forth the
word of God to you in word, in an intellectual manner, it come
to your heart in power. It arrested you. Did God hold
on you? You not only understood what
I said, but you believed what I said. You felt the truth of
what I was saying in your heart. You said in your heart, now that's
the truth. That's the truth. Paul said,
you were going along living your life. Serving your idols? You had no interest in the living
God or in the salvation of your soul? And when I come preaching
the gospel to you, the gospel arrested you. It broke in upon
your understanding. What caused it to do that? It
came with power. Power. What caused it to come
in power? Well, he tells us the very next
verse. Look here. The gospel came not only in word,
but also in power, and here it is, in the Holy Ghost. That's it, ain't it? That's it. We preach the gospel with the
Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. See, I can get to your ears. I can wake you up. I can speak
loud enough that I can keep you awake. But I can't get it past
your ears. But if the gospel is attended
with the Holy Spirit, I tell you, He takes it to your spirit.
He takes it to your heart. That's the difference there.
That's the difference. Old Brother Barnard used to say,
if you'd just hear my voice, you wouldn't be any better off.
But if you use your hand through my voice, you'll be a prophet. And that's what happened. Paul
said, I want to ask you a question, he said. Was my preaching the gospel to
you in vain? Oh, no it wasn't. No, Paul, it
wasn't. We're witness to that. When you
preached the gospel to us, I understood what you were saying. And oh,
it came with power, and the Holy Spirit, and what else? And look
at this, in much assurance. In much assurance. I'll tell you what happened to
these people. When they heard the gospel, their guilt, they
were faced with their guilt and their danger before God. And
boy, they were stripped. They stood before God stripped
of anything to hold Him. And at the same time this gospel
stripped them, it closed them. At the same time, it showed them
that they were shut out and without hope. It showed them that they
were received. and fill them with assurance."
Nothing like the gospel. He'll strip you in glory, he'll
mock all the props up and under you, and lift you up at the same
time. The mystery of the gospel. That's
what he said. In much assurance. In much assurance. And joy of the Holy Ghost. And look at something else. That's
the first thing he's coming to. But look here. He's affecting
them in another way. Look in verse 6. Look here. How has my preaching affected
you? Let me ask you that this morning. How has it affected
you? You answer that yourself. Here's how it affected these
people. Look here what he did in verse 6. You became followers
of us of our doctrine, of our lifestyle, but more importantly,
look at this, you became followers of the Lord. See that? A fellow told me one time, he said,
I believe I'm one of the Lord's sheep. I said, if you're not
following Him, you've got no right to believe that. Here's
what the gospel does to a man. It puts him to following the
Lord. He does it every time, doesn't
he? Paul said, what effect did my
preaching have upon you? Did it profit you? Oh, yes it
did, Paul. They become followers of the
Lord. And look here on down in verse
9. Look at this. And they, for they themselves,
these people around you, Show of us, they tell us, what
manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned
to God from idols to serve the living and the true God." That's
effective, Adam. They couldn't deny that. It turned
them from idols, and it turned them to God, to serve God. What
effect has my preaching had upon you? I'll ask you then. And look
what else in verse 10. And to wait for his Son from
heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come. Oh, my soul, would to God that
my preaching had that kind of effect upon people. And I'll
ask you, brothers and sisters, and you'll have to answer this
for yourself. Don't ask me, but ask yourself, what effect has
the pastor's preaching had upon me and is having upon me? Does
it ever come to me in its power? Do I know what he's saying? Do
I get assurance from the preaching of the gospel? Is it putting
within me this desire to follow Christ and to obey Christ? Is it turning me from my sins
to God? Is it encouraging me to search
the Scriptures and wait for the fulfillment of those promises?
Is it encouraging me to wait on the Lord for His return? To
seek Him in prayer and wait on Him? You'll have to answer that
for yourself, won't you? And that's good. That's good.
For yourselves, brethren, know what entrance end we had unto
you, that it was not in vain. Now look at verse 2. Look at the courage of this preacher.
For even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated,
as you know, at Philippi. That epistle Brother Larry has
been teaching to us now. When Paul went to her to preach
for them, they threw him in jail, him and Silas. Beat him, beat
the dickens out of him. Put many stripes on their back,
deep furrows, and threw them in the back of the prison, put
them in jail. And when they got out of there,
they left there, Philippi, and the next place he come to was
here, Thessalonica. Even after they shamefully entreated
him there for preaching the gospel, he still came here to this place
and preached the gospel to these people. Even after he was shamefully
entreated. And here is what he said, even
after we were shamefully treated, yet, he says, we were bold in
our God to speak the gospel of God. Got him whipped, got him
thrown in jail, but he said, I still preach the gospel of
God. And when you see the gospel of
God there, you can put in there the gospel of Christ. The gospel
of the grace of Christ, the everlasting gospel, the glorious gospel. What is this gospel? What is
the gospel of God? It means salvation by Christ
alone, without the works of the law. That's what the gospel is. The gospel is this, how God can
be just and justify the ungodly. That's the gospel of God. The
gospel of God is this, that sin has been atoned for. That sin has been put away. That the wrath of God has been
borne by somebody else. that reconciliation has already
been made, that a righteousness has already been brought in to
clothe the shame of our nakedness. What is the gospel? The gospel
of God is this, the work of salvation has already been done. That's the gospel. And in the
light of that, We preach to the vilest of sinners that we can
find, repent you and believe this gospel. It's good news. Oh, it's peace
with God. It's joy in the Holy Ghost. And
note this concerning the preacher of this gospel. And this is one
reason why the apostle said, dear, we're bold in our God to
preach the gospel. We make it plain. We're bold. And he preached the gospel for
this reason. It is only as a man hears this
gospel and believes this gospel that he can be assured in his
heart that he has any saving interest in God. Now hear what I said. It is only
as one hears this gospel and believes this gospel that he
can be assured in his heart that he has any saving interest in
God. As I read the Scriptures and
I read the Bible, no believing sinner has a right to think that
God is for him, unless he believes the gospel. You go ahead and tell him that
Christ died for him. You go ahead and tell him God
loves him. Go ahead and tell him all of that. But if you're
not careful, you'll prop him up. And he'll receive himself. And he'll rest in something that
he knows nothing about. I believe in the benevolence
of God, the kindness of God, the loving kindness of God to
all men. I really believe that. But I'm
talking about the everlasting love of God. I'm talking about
the love of God that He has for His elect souls. That saving
love. No lost sinner can know the love
of God while he has his feet upon the neck of the Son of God,
living in rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he can't
know it. He can't know it. Listen to these verses of Scripture.
The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of
the Son of God. Paul said, my heart is open in
Christ. I'm not seeking to save myself
anymore. Christ, I'm looking to Him. And
the very next thing he said, when he said, the life I will,
by faith of the Son of God, who loved me. See where the love
of God is? It's in Christ. And you ain't
going to know the love of God before you're living in rebellion
against your son. Now, you ain't going to do it.
You ain't going to do it. Listen to this verse of Scripture
in John 3.36. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath eternal life. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath eternal life. And you cannot know you have
life unless you believe on the Son of God. You can't know it.
You can't know it. And listen to this. He that believeth
not the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him. See those two things? Those who
have heard the gospel and they believe this gospel, they have
a right to believe God loves them, that Christ died for them,
that they have eternal life. But those who believe not, they
have only a right to believe this, that the wrath of God abideth
on them. This is one of the reasons we
go preaching the gospel, that men may find out if God's for
them or if God's against them. I want to know that, don't you?
I tell you the greatest blessing I know a man can come to understand
is God is not angry with me anymore. If there's any such thing as
the awful wrath of God upon the souls of men, to find out how
that wrath can be removed is the greatest blessing any man
can know this side of eternity. And I'm telling you the only
way to know that it's not on you is by hearing and believing
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul said that's why we're going
to preach it. And he gave us an example of that. Look here
in chapter 1. Again, look in verse 4. Here's an example of that. Knowing,
look at this, chapter 1 verse 4. Knowing, brethren, you know
it. You know, brethren, beloved,
your election of God. You know that you're one of God's
elect. You found that out. There was a time when you didn't
even know anything about election. For all you was concerned, you
didn't know God did anything back in eternity. But now you
found out. You're one of His. He chose you
in Christ. He put your name down in the
last book of life before He ever made the world. And you know
you're one of Him. How did you find that out? He
tells us in that next verse, don't He? Because... For our
gospel came to you in word, and power, and in the Holy Ghost.
See that? See that? God's everlasting love
that's in Jesus Christ the Lord, all His spiritual blessings,
Men perceive that in their intellect, they believe it in their hearts,
they enjoy it in their spirits as they are brought to believe
on and cleave to the Lord Jesus Christ as He's revealed in the
gospel. That's why we preach it. That's
why Paul preaches it. Now we're going to find out who
God's elect are. We'll go preaching the gospel.
You'll find out. You'll find out. Light that old candle of
the gospel. And you start searching. You'll find them. You'll find
them. But notice what else here in
our text in chapter 2. He says here in the last portion
of chapter 2, We were bold in our God, to speak
unto you the gospel of God, but look at this, with much contention,
even though the gospel reveals the good will of God to those
who believe. It reveals the love of God to
those who believe. But I tell you, those who don't
believe it, they're indifferent to it, and some of them even
hear it with much contention, much opposition. That's what
that word means, contention. Paul said, we preached it to
you. But boy, we suffered trouble,
he said, when we did. If you study Acts chapter 17,
you'll see what trouble they ran into here while they were
preaching the gospel. That's the place where they said they
that have turned the world upside down have come here and lost
it. And Paul came here preaching the gospel to these Thessalonians,
and boy, some of them got mad. They got as mad as they could
be. Assaulted some of them. They ran Paul from out of town.
And they followed him over there and persecuted him. If you're
going to preach the gospel, brothers and sisters, you better go set
yourself. You're going to have to do it
with some opposition. Contention. You know what that word means?
It's the same word they used back in the old, when they used
to have the Olympic Games back there in Rome. They had these
two guys that came together opposing each other. They were going to
contend for the championship. That's what this word means.
Contending for it. Some of us have been watching
the tournament, the college tournament, the NCAA tournament. Next Monday
night they're going to have two people contending for the national
championship. And what are they going to do
when they do that? Man, they're going to get in there and try
their best to kill somebody. Those big bodies going to be
flying around in sweat and aches and pain. They're going to strive
one against another to see who can win the national championship. That's what discontention is.
We preach the gospel with much contention. If you're going to
preach the gospel, you might as well get set, somebody's going
to call you a lunatic. I just called a lunatic last
week. Sort of hurt my feelings. Got her out of my house and got
one out in the yard and hauled her back out. You're a lunatic,
she said. I went and looked up the word
lunatic. See just for sure what it means. It means somebody that's
possessed with a measure of insanity. I thought, well, he may be right. He may be right. I am that. I
am that. But if you're going to be faithful
to the gospel, You might as well get ready to suffer some hardness. You're going to get your feelings
hurt. You're going to have people call you names. You're going
to suffer some opposition. How much does the gospel mean
to us? And how are we going to keep
doing this? Paul said this, we were bold in our God. In the power of God. Don't be
ashamed of the gospel, he said. Suffer the afflictions of the
gospel according to the power of God. Be strong in the grace
that's in Christ Jesus. That's how we continue to be
bold in the gospel, this grace. Look at some of his motives here
in verse 3 and verse 4. He's talking about preaching
the gospel. Look what he said here. Look what he says here. First of all, negatively, when
we preach the gospel, here's our motives, he said. And first
of all, he deals with what his motives are not. Look in verse
3. For our preaching, our exhortation,
was not in error, or out of error. We're not some crackpot or some
nut that's got a hold of some silly doctrine here, and it's
motivating us to spread it worldwide. And they had people around like
that in their days, and we have too. We've seen them get these
communes together and go off into another country, and finally
wind up killing each other, poisoning each other. Believe in some lie. I tell you, there's a lot of
people doing one thing because they believe the lie. The Lord
told the Pharisees, He said, you fellows can pass land and
sea to make one prosperity. Who? What motivated them to do
that? Self-righteousness. They went
over and preached the lie. We've got people today who will
go from door to door. What makes them do that? Promoting
error. Paul said, no, that's not what's
motivating us. It's not out of impairment. No. And notice this, it was not out
of a motive of uncleanness. Paul didn't preach an impure
gospel. He preached a holy gospel, a glorious gospel of God. And
I tell you what, brothers and sisters, it doesn't lead to any
moral lifestyle either. It doesn't. Nothing about the
gospel is unclean, and it'll never lead you to do anything
that's wrong. It'll promote godliness in you.
It'll promote your forsaking your sin and yourself, and loving
God, and loving your neighbor. It's a pure life. You take the old gospel of Catholicism,
if you will, and what does that promote? I was reading not long ago about
back in the 1500s, 1400s and 1500s, Catholicism, the Pope
was selling indulgences. They still do that, but they
don't tell you about it. And what you could do, you could
take a certain amount of money, and you could give it to one
of the cardinals, or give it to one of the priests, and he
would give you an indulgence. He would sign an indulgence for
you. And you could go out and commit fornication, and go back
and hand your indulgence in. Just forget it. You could buy
an indulgence to get drunk. They still do that. You can go
out there on a Friday night and get dog drunk and go to confession
on Saturday morning and the priest will resolve you. He can take away your sin. What
is that but indulgences? And what kind of lifestyle would
that promote? Ungodliness, uncleanness, filthiness. You remember that gray whore
in Revelation 17 that John saw sitting on that scarlet-colored
beast, this woman he called a whore? You remember what was in her
hand? A golden cup. That's what they communed and
drank out of. You remember what it was full of? Filthiness. Filthiness. All of Catholicism is nothing
but filth. I've often said Hollywood is
the most filthy, moral, immoral organization in this world, and
Catholicism is the most vulgar and filthy in the spiritual world.
And it isn't. But Paul said that's not our
motive. Our gospel is pure, and it will lead you to live a pure
and holy life in the service of God. And notice what else
he said then. Notice what else he said. Here in verse 2. And verse 3, not in deceit, not
error, uncleanness, nor in guile, he said. In guile, not to defraud
people or win people's trust or praise that they may win their
property. That's going on today too, ain't it? Our aim is not to impress
people that we may extract something from them. We're not handling
the Word of God deceitfully or corrupting it by using it to
trick people. We present people with a plain
truth as it is in Jesus, with an honest hope that they'll repent
and believe what we're telling them. That's all the motive we
have. I don't want your money. Don't
want your praise? Don't want anything you've got.
I'm after your soul. I'm an ambassador of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm seeking for you to throw
up your white flag to Him and bow down and kiss the Son of
God. That's the only motive I have.
That's the only motive I have. I don't want anything else. That's
what Paul said. That's what he said. In verse 4, Verse 4, and I'm
going to have to quit on this. My 30 minutes is just about gone.
It's hard to say this in 30 minutes, ain't it? Verse 4, look at this. The motive for keeping the gospel
pure in our preaching. Look what he said. But as we
were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even
so we speak. Oh, what a glorious moment. God
has entrusted me with the gospel. You all trust me. You all trusted
me when you called me to be your pastor. And you said, by calling
me to be your pastor, Bruce, we're going to trust that you'll
keep that pulpit pure. That what's taught here and what's
preached here will not be error. We're going to have you as our
pastor, and we're going to trust that you'll do that. Boy, that's
a good motive for me to watch and be careful as your pastor.
But I've got a better motive than that. God has entrusted
me He's made me to know my sin. He's turned my world upside down. He's brought me to the end of
myself. He's brought me, myself, to have
nothing to cling to but Christ. And He's put this precious treasure
of the gospel in my heart. And here's what He says to me.
Now, you keep it pure. You keep that gospel pure. Don't
you mix it with law? Don't you mix it with morality?
Don't mix it with free will? Don't mix it with the marriage
of men? You preach it as pure as I reveal
it to you in my word. I'm entrusting you with this
gospel. Boy, there's a good motive, ain't
it? There's a good motive. That way, see, what I preach
here, I'll preach when I go somewhere else. Because I'm not just preaching
in your sight, I'm preaching in the sight of God. And boy,
that makes a difference. You see, these guys can preach
one way here and go off into free will and preach free will.
God's never entrusted them with the gospel. Mark it down. He
hasn't. My wife, I'm going to tell this
on my wife. I'm never supposed to use her as an illustration
again. I'm going to tell this on her. She used to be very jealous
of me. She's not very jealous of me
anymore. And I think I know why. I looked in the mirror one day
and I thought to myself, if I ever had it, I lost it. But one of
the reasons she's not jealous of me anymore, I told her one
day. I said, sweetheart, listen to me. Yeah, if I'm unfaithful to you,
I've betrayed your trust. But I'm responsible to one higher
than her. I don't want to betray her trust.
I don't want to betray his trust. And that's why Paul said, God
has entrusted us with the gospel. And when a man finds that out,
then he'll want to compromise the gospel. He'll not stand for
free will. He just will not. It's free grace. It's free grace. If a man says he's called to
preach the gospel, and he does not stand in awe of that gospel, But he forsakes it for some silly,
unscriptural illustrations and flattery of free will and human
power and merit. He can know this much. God has
never entrusted him with God. Why do we emphasize this? Now,
why even emphasize this? Well, look at the next one. Look
at the very next verse, the last portion of verse 4. Look at this. As we were allowed of God to
be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, we preach it,
not as pleasing men, but God. See why we emphasize God entrusting
a man with the gospel? Because when you go to preach
the gospel, you're going to find out it does not please man. It's not pleasing to this world.
Now, it pleases God's people. It pleases God's people. Don't
get me wrong. You preach the gospel to God's
people, they love it. And the purer you can preach
it to them, the more you can, under God, strip them of everything
that's theirs and leave them with nothing but Jesus Christ.
Oh, they love that. They love that. Don't it please you well when
you say that you're nothing and Christ is all? That you have
nothing and He's everything. Don't that displease you well?
Scott Richardson, I've told you this before. Somebody asked him
one time, Scott, is Christ enough? Is Jesus Christ and Him crucified
enough? And Scott said, if He's all you
have, He is. If He's your all, He's enough.
Now if you've got Him mixed up with a bunch more stuff, He's
not all. He's not enough. But if He's all you've got, I
mean you're no leprous sinner, and you're depending on His blood
to cleanse you, He's enough. If you know the nakedness and
you know your own shame, and you're looking to His garments
of salvation to clothe you, He's enough. He's enough. If you feel
in and of yourself that you're a sinner against God and ought
to have been in hell yesterday, but Christ is all your acceptance
in heaven for time and eternity, it's in Him that he's alive. And when you hear that, you love
that, don't you? But I tell you folks, the world
don't. That don't please the world. You start stripping away
at their little gods and their free will. You start telling
them that Christ has done everything, and they're enemies against God,
and God commands them to turn from their wicked ways and unrighteous
thought and bow down to Christ and receive Him and own Him as
their all. They don't like that. They don't
like that. And if God hasn't entrusted you
with the gospel, you know what you'll do? You'll compromise.
You'll compromise. Not as pleasing men, but look
at this, but God. I love this. There have been
times I've found so much comfort in this word. And look how he
says this. God has entrusted us with the
gospel, even so we speak, we preach the gospel, as pleasing
God. You know God loves to hear the
gospel. That's what he's saying. He said, God's entrusted us with
the gospel even so we speak as pleasing God. And it's been such
a help to me when you're off somewhere and you're preaching
and nobody there is believing what you're preaching. And boy,
you can see it in their faces. You can see it in their faces.
One thing that will comfort you so much, start preaching it to
God. Just preach it to Him. Tell it
back to Him. He loves it. He loves free grace. He loves that. He loves it. Tell back how He's chosen good
people before time. He loves to hear about that.
Tell how He sent His Son and He accomplished redemption. Tell
about how the Holy Spirit is able to calm us, effectually,
and break us and bring us. God loves to hear that. Preach
it to him. You know what Paul said, and
you can find this in 2 Corinthians 2 and 3 and so on. He talked
about preaching the gospel. And you know what he said about
preaching the gospel. He said, everywhere we go, we preach Christ.
And we seek to bring men to the knowledge of Christ. And you
know what he said about that. As we do that, we are unto God
a sweet savor of Christ. He heard us preaching Christ
and it just reminds him all over again how precious his son is
to him. It's just like this sweet perfume coming up in his nostril.
Paul said that's what we're doing, preaching the gospel. If man
don't like it, God likes it. God likes it. And we'll close with verse 5.
I've kept you too long. For neither at any time used
we flattering words. You know, we brag on each other,
and we should. We should always tell Larry he
did a good job in the Sunday school class, and he does. We
can't do it without Brother Glenn, I tell you that. We can't do
it without any of you folks. Bless your heart, we just love
you. And we tell you that. I appreciate it. It's such an
inspiration to me, encouragement to me. But what Paul said here,
I'm not flattering. He said, I didn't come flattering
you. I didn't come saying, boy, you've got a good position. Boy,
you've worked your way up. You've got some money. What did
you say your name was? Oh, man, that's a famous name,
ain't it? He didn't flatter people with
stuff like that. Paul came preaching clearly about man's guilt and
danger before God. If you're outside of Christ today,
Paul said you're guilty before God and in danger of perishing.
I don't care who you are. I don't care who you are. That's
what he said. We don't use flattery upon people. You know that, he
said. And look here, in our cloak of
covetousness. That ain't why we preach. You know what a cloak is, don't
you? It's something that you cover
up something with. You cover up something. The Pharisees,
they went into the widows' houses to rob. They went in and took
up offerings. And the widow put her little
mouth in their hat, and they put it in their pockets and left.
But you know what they did before they left? They said, let's have
a word of prayer. And they covered their covetousness
up with prayer. That ain't why we preach. We preach for the glory of God.
I don't know your motive, you don't know my motive. But here's
something that's very comforting. Paul says, God is my witness.
God knows, don't he? God knows. God knows my heart
and God knows your heart. And if we're doing anything other
than for God's glory alone, then God knows it. God knows it. Well, just some thoughts about
preaching. May God bless them to your heart. Let's pray.