If you have your Bible this morning,
turn with me to the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter
2. I want to speak to you this morning
on five good reasons for thanking God. Five good reasons for thanking
God. Let me read to you verse 13 and
14 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because when ye receive the word of God
which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but
as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh
also in you that believe. For ye, brethren, became followers
of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. For you also have suffered like
things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews."
Now as we come back to the Word of God here this morning, we
want to think a little bit about these two verses, and I believe
that they will furnish us with a message that's fitting for
this final day that we'll be meeting together in year 2003. First of all, I want the words
that really stood out to me as I looked at these verses was
these, for this cause also thank we God without ceasing. For this
cause also thank we God without ceasing." Now, beloved, the air
today is so full and so heavy with criticism, murmuring, and
complaining that it is so pleasant, is it not, and so joyful and
so refreshing to hear somebody say, thank God. Thank God. It's so refreshing and so inspiring
to our hearts to hear the Apostle Paul here say, for this cause
also thank we God without ceasing. Now God sent, if you remember
the story back in Numbers, chapter 21, and you might just turn there
in your Bibles. You're not lazy. I don't want
you to get lazy on me. But turn back to the book of
Numbers, chapter 21. Keep your finger in our text
here because we'll be coming back to it. But we see we're
the children of Israel, and this is a lesson that we need to learn.
The children of Israel were marching through the wilderness on their
wilderness journey. And the Lord had given them a
great victory over the Canaanites. And after this great victory
that he had given them, in verse 4, it says, And they journeyed
from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land
of Edom, and the soul of the people was much discouraged because
of the way. And the people spake against
God and against Moses, Wherefore have you brought us out of Egypt
to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither
is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. And look what the Lord did. And
the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit
the people, and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people
came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against
the Lord, and against thee. pray unto the Lord that he may
take the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and
set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that every one
that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And so Moses made a serpent of
brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if
a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of
brass, he lived. Now why I read this story is
because you see that the Lord sent these fiery serpents in
and among the children of Israel to bite them because of their
murmuring and because of their complaining and because of their
criticizing the Lord's servant Moses. And so the Lord was pleased
to send these serpents among them to bite them. to teach them
a lesson. And I wonder what kind of judgment
would God send on us today for all of our carrying on about
His providence, all our complaining, all our murmuring, and the air,
as we said, is heavy with it. People complaining about what
they do not have and about their circumstances and their afflictions,
and then we have the critics And one of the best definitions
that I ever come across of a critic is somebody who is up in the
hills who comes down after the battle is over and shoots the
wounded. We have many, many critics in
our day that are complaining all the time about what they
have to listen to, what they have to hear. But I'm asking
you this morning, if the Lord was to judge us as He judged
the children of Israel on this occasion, what kind of a judgment
would God send on us today? That we're so ungrateful, complaining
and murmuring, and going our way up and down the road of life
without any real praise and thanksgiving in our hearts unto the Lord.
Now, beloved Paul was a man who praised and thanked God. He thanked
God without ceasing. Now he was a greatly tested man,
a tried man, an afflicted man, but yet he praised God. And in
1 Thessalonians 5 and 18, I want you to look here at this verse
of Scripture. Paul said, in everything, this
is the same man, the apostle Paul, in everything give thanks,
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Now beloved, this tells us that
in everything we are to give thanks because this is God's
will if we be in Christ Jesus. If we be in the Lord Jesus Christ,
our sins have been forgiven, they've been blotted out. We're
never to face them anymore. We're God's children. He's pledged
to be a chief shepherd unto us as His sheep. And so everything
is to be, we're to give thanks for it because we're in Christ
Jesus and this is the will of God. Now there are some things
that you may say I will have a very difficult time in giving
God thanks for. Now beloved, the older you become
in the faith of the gospel, the more you will understand why
it is that we are to give thanks in all things. you will understand
more clearly the great providence of God, and understand God's
pledge to provide for His people, and God's kindness and grace,
His compassion toward His people, and the things that you deem
are against you, you someday will give thanks for, because
they are indeed sin of the Lord, and they come from a wise, heavenly
Father's And we're to remember that. We're to thank God for
everything. And some of us have particular
reasons, maybe to give thanks for some things, maybe not for
others. But let us remember to give thanks
for everything, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. And in Colossians 3.15, Paul
said, Be ye thankful. Be ye thankful. And in Ephesians
5.20, he said, giving thanks always for all things to the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Giving thanks unto the Father. And then turn back over with
me to the book of Psalms. Psalm 100. Psalm 100 if you would. And I want to read here a couple
of verses. Verse 4 and 5. And listen to the words of King
David. He said, enter into his gates
with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful
unto him. and bless His name. For the Lord is good, His mercy
is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations. This is a great verse indeed.
He's here admonishing the people of God to enter into His gates
with thanksgiving and to His courts with praise. Be thankful
unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good. For the
Lord is good. Hallelujah. He is good indeed. And all the people of God will
say, Amen. The Lord is good. Now, I want
you to notice these words in our text. Back over in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 2 again. For this cause thank we God,
Paul says, without ceasing. Without ceasing. Now, you may
wonder about why he would make such a statement as that, but
beloved, I know that we are prone here to have every once in a
while a little revival of praise, a little revival of thanksgiving,
and then we just found, again, murmuring and complaining, and
we are not as grateful and thankful as we ought to be without ceasing.
But Paul said it was without ceasing. Now for Paul and Silas
and Timothy, every day was Thanksgiving Day. Every day. It didn't make
any difference what day it was. Every day to them was a day to
give praise and thanks to God. Now Paul said, I have learned,
you remember in Philippians, I have learned in whatever state
I am in to be content. Now I wish that we all could
learn that. It's not an easy thing to learn
to be content until you can be grateful and until you can give
thanks to God without ceasing. It's very difficult to learn
to be content in all things. But Paul said he had learned
it, and I believe if he learned it, that it is possible for us
to learn it. But here he says he thanks God
without ceasing. He praises God without ceasing. And as I mentioned, I've noticed
a love around here in our thanksgiving and praising of God at the end
of this year. And it may be because of the
trials we've had. It may be because of the struggles
and the difficulties and the distractions that have come upon
us. But we need to examine ourselves
this morning. Are we grateful in our hearts
and are we praising God without ceasing? Here in our text he
gives us, I believe, five reasons for this ceaseless praise that
he's talking about. And I want us to look at these
things this morning and we wanted to give you a few remarks here
in our opening in the beginning here this morning of our message
to kind of stimulate your heart toward looking at yourself and
examining yourself to see whether or not you're displeasing the
Lord as you live out your life, as you're walking day by day
in this life, whether you're giving the praise, whether you're
giving the attention to the praise and thanksgiving to God that
you ought to be. Now, beloved, we get down to
serious business here in this text. There are five things that
I want to point out to you and say a few words about this morning
in our message. First of all, he says, I thank
God because you have received the word of God. Paul was grateful
for this congregation of people because they had received God's
word. Now that which rejoices the heart
of God's true servants the most is not the number of people who
come to listen to him. No. It's not the number of additions
to the church. No. The amount of money that
flows into the storehouse. No. Paul never mentions in his
writings any of that as to be a basis for his thanksgiving
or his praise. He never mentions how many or
how much. We are to remember that. But
that you receive the Word of God. But that you receive the
Word of God. Now beloved, listen. Why is he
so happy about this? Why is he so happy about them
having received the Word of God? Why would he praise God for this? Well, number one, because he
knew that men by nature would not receive the Word of God,
that man left to himself would never receive the Word of God
into his heart. Now, Paul warns us in particular
in the Word of God that in the last days that men will not endure
sound doctrine. He had told us in 1 Corinthians
2 and 14 that the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him. A man by nature will
not receive the word of God. So these are special people having
been made special by the effectual working of God's grace because
they received the word of God. And Paul warns us that the day
is coming upon us when men will not endure sound teaching but
will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears What that
means is that they have itching ears and they'll get them somebody
who will tickle their ears or who will satisfy the itch in
their ears. They'll get somebody who will
tell them what they want to hear. Men will not hear the Word of
God. I can rejoice with the Apostle
Paul. I can give thanks to God for
this congregation because you will receive the Word of God. You have received it and you
will receive the Word of God. But whether men will hear it,
whether they will reject it or not, we'll just go on and preach
the Word of God as it is. to men as they are. Now this is what the Apostle
Paul did. He preached the word of God as
it is to men as they are. Now our message, hear me, must
not and cannot be determined by what men want to hear or by
what men will hear. We need to settle that in our
hearts. And if you're ever going to speak
for the Lord, you must understand that your message must be determined
by this, saith the Lord, and not by what men say that they
want to hear. And so it cannot be. Now, beloved,
they tell us men do not want to hear what we have to say.
We're told that we need to get us another message. I remember
reading about John Waterburton and how that he pastored a congregation
of people in his day. And this congregation of people
that he ministered to, well, they sent the deacons around.
And they said, John, what you're doing is that you're taking a
different text every Sunday, but you're preaching the same
sermon. and had about 800 people said you're preaching the same
sermon and you're preaching the gospel and why don't you get
into the parables and get you some sermons on the parables
and get away from this gospel preaching. And so he said he
listened to them and tried it for a little while, and said
in a little bit, he just said, there's no way, I've got to go
back to preaching the gospel of redeeming grace. And so he
did, and I think that after he'd made the effort to preach another
section of the Word of God out of the parables, after he had
done that that the people was glad to hear him get back to
the old gospel of Jesus Christ. Now then, and I want to say this
because I think it's so important, especially as we go along the
way. We will notice that those who
receive the word do not argue with the word. Now I'm trying
to explain to you why Paul would thank God. He said, for this
cause, thank we God without ceasing because you have received the
Word of God. Well, you will notice that those
who receive the Word of God do not argue the Word. They do not
resist the Word. Those who receive the Word welcome
the Word. They're glad to hear the Word.
They delight in it because they feed upon it. The Word of God
is the children's bread. Now they never grow tired of
it. You'll learn that. You'll observe that as you go
along. Those who receive the Word of
God, they're special people and they will not grow tired of the
Word. It is their foundation of faith.
The Bible says, faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word
of God, and the more of it that you hear as a child of God, the
stronger your foundation will be. It is, as we said, the children's
bread, and you feed upon it, you'll get stronger. Now remember
this, that a sincere love for the Word of God is a good evidence
of spiritual life. The Bible says in Peter, newborn
babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow
thereby. A sincere desire for the Word
of God is an evidence that you've passed out of death into spiritual
life, that you're a born-again child of God if you have a desire
toward the Word, if you'll receive the Word of God, if you have
received it into your heart. Now, my friend, a lack of interest
in the Word of God and indifference toward the Word of God is a good
evidence that you're still in spiritual darkness and deadness. Now if you have this indifference
toward the word, he that rejecteth me and receiveth not my word,
saith the Lord Jesus in John 12, 48, hath one that judgeth
him the word that I have spoken unto him, the same shall judge
him in the last day. And so the Word of God will be
there in the last day to judge you. So I'm with Paul. I thank God for you people, those
of you that have received the Word of God. I'm grateful for
you because I know that it's an evidence that God has done
a work in your life or else you would not have received the Word. Now we'll go on then to the second
thing. He thanked God for this cause, that they received the
Word of God not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the
Word of God. They received it not, you know
there are times when people lack certain preachers and whatever
Those preachers say they'll just latch on to it and they'll receive
it. If it comes from a certain fellow, they'll receive it. But
if it comes from another man, they won't receive it. And people
are fickle that way, you know. They're very fickle that way. But the Apostle Paul thanked
God that these people had received the Word, but they didn't receive
it because he said it. They received it because it was
indeed the Word of God. Now, beloved, this is serious
business. Brother, sister, your faith must
not stand in the Word of a man. It must not stand in the Word
of men. It cannot. And you must not just
believe something because somebody said, well, what do you believe?
They said, well, I believe what the preacher believes. Well,
what does the preacher believe? He believes what I believe. Well,
what is that? and they don't know what that
is. Brethren, listen to me. Our faith must not stand in the
wisdom of man. It must not, but in the power
of God, in that which we've experienced by the hand of God to the Holy
Ghost. Now a man in his best state is altogether vanity, the
Bible says, regardless of how clever or how educated he is. He is nothing but a man. Dress
him as you will. He's a man whose breath is in
his nostrils and he's not to be depended upon. because He's
fresh. And you need to listen to the
Word of God and receive the Word of God as it is in truth, the
Word of God. Man is not infallible. God's
Word is infallible. And we claim no infallibility
and no perfection, but we claim infallibility and perfection
for the Word of God. Amen? We claim that for God's
Word. Now beloved, if a man, listen
to me, if a man can talk you into a religion or into religion,
another man can come along and talk you out of it. If a man
can talk you into a decision, making a little decision in your
heart, if he can talk you into doing something, than somebody
else talk you out of it. And we need to be aware of that.
There is a difference, brethren, between the Word of God and the
Word of a man. I want you to look back with
you, if you will, with me, to John chapter 4. And hold your
finger again in our text. John chapter 4. And I want to
read here verse 40 and 41. Now you remember the story about
the Samaritan woman and our Lord met her at the well and he told
her all things that she had done in her life. And so she went
into the city and told those in the city, said I've met this
man and she believed he was the Messiah. He told me all that
ever I did in verse 39. So when the Samaritans were come
unto him, the Samaritans came out of the city, out to where
the Lord Jesus was. And they besought him that he
would tarry with them, and he abode there two days. And many
more believed because of his own word. Because of his own
word. Now I want you to listen to what
they said. and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because
of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that
this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world." Now that's
exactly what this testifies to, that these brethren These folks
knew, those that become believers here, they knew that the woman's
testimony, whether it be true or whether it not, they wanted
to hear Him. They wanted to hear it come directly
out of His mouth. And as they heard Him speak,
they told her, we've heard Him ourselves, and we know that this
is indeed the Christ. We've heard Him ourselves. Now
the question is this, The question is, Have you heard Him yourself? Now it's one thing for the preacher
to tell you you're saved. It's another thing for you and
for the Holy Spirit to bear witness through the Word of God that
you are a Christian. Those are two different things
all together. The preacher may be right. He
may be wrong. But what you better do is to
hear from God yourself and pray that the day will come. We thank
God for every one of you. that have received the word,
not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God. We praise God for you, and we
know that that is the work of God's Spirit. Now then, the third
thing that we find here that I want to mention is this. As we look back to the text again,
he says this, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. which effectually worketh also
in you that believe." Paul was thankful that the word of God
which they had received had effectually worked in them. Now what does
the word effectual mean? It means that it got the job
done. That's what it means. It got
the job done. Now if you listened, as Brother
Randy read, the first verse says, For yourselves, brethren, know
our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain. That it was
not in vain. We come over there and preach
to you people, it was not in vain. We didn't just come because
somebody suggested we make a little trip. No, we came over there
by the direction of the Spirit of God, and we preached, and
our coming to you was not in vain. And this is what he means
here. He says the Word of God effectually
worked in you that believe. The Word of God accomplished
something in your life. Now, you've heard people say,
I believe the Bible. I believe the Bible. I've heard
people say, I believe the Bible from cover to cover. I believe
that. Well, my friend, listen to me.
If they did believe the Bible from cover to cover, they would
be saved. They would be saved. Now brethren,
let me make this statement, because I believe it's the truth, that
you don't know anything that you haven't experienced. You
know nothing that you have not experienced. If you have not
experienced the Word of God in your heart, working in your soul,
saving you, delivering you, empowering you to live for Christ, if you
haven't experienced it, it hadn't happened. You don't know it.
You say, well, I know I'm saved. Well, my friend, if you truly
have experienced it, then you can say so. You can say so. And why Paul was so grateful,
and why he was so thankful, and why he praised God for these
people without ceasing, was because the Word of God had effectually
worked in their hearts. had effectually changed them,
made them to be followers of Christ, made them to be true
believers, true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
as I look out here upon this congregation, I too thank God
That there are those of you here in whose heart the Word of the
Lord has effectually worked. The Word of God has got the job
done. You passed out of death unto
life. You have been joined savingly. to the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Redeemer has been made real to you. You have been to Calvary,
and you know that hanging there on that tree, the Lord Jesus
Christ died for you. Died in your room and stood in
place. You've experienced it. You've experienced it. And you
know, somebody says sometime to me, they said, you believe
in the sovereignty of God. I say, no, now wait a minute.
Wait a minute. I believe in a God that's sovereign. I believe in a God that is sovereign. Well, what's the difference?
Well, the difference is that you can believe that there is
a sovereign God in your head. But if you believe in a sovereign
God, if you believe truly in a sovereign God, it's because
you've experienced His sovereignty. You've experienced it and you
know in your own soul that God is an absolute sovereign in control
because you've seen His hand over and over again. I hope that
came out good. If it don't, just chalk it up
to an old man here not being able to explain himself as clearly
as he'd like. I just say to you this morning,
you don't know anything you haven't experienced. What do you think
you know? Well, the Bible teaches that
a man must have these truths, Bible truths, effectually work
into their hearts. He must experience them. And
that's what Paul is thanking God for these people. Now, God's Word can get the job
done. It can save all the sheep. Do
you believe that? It can save all the sheep. The
Word of God can get the job done. Let me say that the Word of God
can get the job done and you don't need anything else. Is
that okay? You don't need anything else?
I don't really believe you need anything else. If you just faithfully
preach the Word of God, I believe it will get the job done. It
will get it done. I mean it will accomplish what
God intends to accomplish. What else do you want to accomplish?
What are you in this thing for? Are you in this thing to try
to make a name for yourself? Are you trying to build something
for yourself? What are you after? Get glory
to yourself? No, my friend, you preach the
Word. Be faithful in declaring plainly the message of the Word
of God and it will get the job done. It always has and it will
certainly get the job done. Now, I know some people think
you got to have a band and you got to have You know, you gotta
have this, and you gotta have that, you gotta have something
else. But my friend, according to the Word of God, the Bible
teaches that the Word effectually works in those who believe. And
that Word changes. That is a life-giving, it's a
converting power, the Word is, in the lives of those who believe
it. Now then, the fourth thing is found in verse 14. And the
first part of the verse, for ye brethren became followers
of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. Now, this is very important that
we see this because Paul was grateful and I'm grateful for
each one of you that have followed the Lord Jesus Christ and have
become involved with his people and his church, and his truth. Beloved, this is the reason why
Paul would thank God for this, is because you cannot separate
faith from conduct. You cannot separate faith from
conduct. The Bible says, as a man thinketh
in his heart, so is he. The Bible says, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. The Bible says, my sheep hear
my voice, and they follow me. Wherever you find them, they'll
be following Christ. If they are His sheep, if they
have heard His voice, they will identify themselves with the
Lord's people, with the Lord's church. Because you see, they're
a tribe. These people are a tribe. These
people are a family. These people love the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now to help you to see this a
little clearer, and look back to the book of Acts, chapter
2. And look at verse 41. We see here that you cannot separate
faith from conduct. In verse 41 it says, Then they
that gladly received his word were baptized. Well, is that
not a clear verse of scripture on what happens when somebody
believes the word, receives the word? that it moves them to do
what the Lord would have them to do. And as this church here
Paul is talking to in Thessalonians, this church, it says they became
followers of the churches of God. Which in Judea and Christ
Jesus, they practiced what these churches practiced. They obeyed
the word of God and were submissive to the word of God. And brethren,
I believe the key to happiness in this world is submission to
God, submission to His Word, submission to His ways, submission
to what He reveals in the Word is right for you, submission
to these things. And so they that got to receive
His Word were baptized. There's a connection there. And
I think we need to understand that. And Paul, as he saw these
people become followers of the churches of God in Judea, then
he said, I thank God for you. I'm thankful because it's evident
that your faith is leading you to action. Your faith is leading
you in the way that you ought to go, and that you're following
in the way. And beloved, it cannot be. You
must remember that the sheep hear His voice, and they follow
Him, and they won't follow anyone else. They'll follow the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, the fifth thing that I want
to mention, this is a very strange thing, but the Apostle Paul is
giving thanks here, And I believe in the latter part of verse 14
that he's thanking God that these people have suffered. They have
suffered. Now you say, that's strange,
preacher. Why would Paul thank God that these people have suffered?
I will make haste to tell you in just a moment. But he says,
for you also have suffered like things of your own countrymen,
even as they have of the Jews. That means the churches in Judea
had suffered persecution at the hands of the Jews. Now, this
is what I believe Paul is saying here. Paul was one who thanked
God that he was counted worthy. to suffer for Christ's sake himself. He thanked God for that. And
he gloried in his afflictions. He joyed in persecutions and
hard times. He said, when I'm afflicted and
when I'm weak, the power of Christ rests upon me so I'll glory in
my infirmities. He wasn't afraid of being weak. He wasn't afraid of suffering.
He wasn't afraid of being tested, of being tried. Now turn in your
Bibles, if you will, to another verse of Scripture that I'd like
to read in the book of Philippians. If you'll turn back with me to
Philippians, and I'd like to read beginning with verse 27 of the first chapter. Philippians
1, 27. Only let your conversation, and
that word there is Behavior, only that your behavior, the
way you live, the way you conduct yourself, be as it becometh the
gospel of Christ, that whether I come see you or else be absent,
I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit
with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel,
and in nothing terrified by your adversaries. Now listen to this,
which is to them An evident token of perdition. Your adversaries. Somebody got to make you suffer.
And these are adversaries. These are those who persecuted
the churches in Judea. And they're also persecuting
the church of the Thessalonians. And Paul's thanking God for their
suffering. He said it's an evidence they're
going to hell because they're persecuting the true people of
God. You know, Paul understood this
because when he was Saul of Tarsus, he persecuted the people of God
unto death. And he was a great blasphemer. And so he said, it's an evident
token they're going to hell if they're persecuting you. And
if you're suffering, he said, but to you of salvation and that
of God. It means that you're saved. If
they're persecuting you, and they're the enemies of the cross
of Christ, you can write it down. It's evidence that you're a child
of God. That's why Paul was thanking
God. Notice on. For unto you it is
given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but
also to suffer for his sake. Now brethren, the two go together.
Paul said in another place, he said, they that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. You will suffer
persecution if you live a godly life in Christ Jesus. So it's an evident token of perdition
to them, of salvation to you, and that of God, because it's
been given unto you to believe, but not only to believe. but
also to suffer for his sake. Would you draw back from that?
Do you want that kind of evidence in your life? Suffering for the
gospel's sake, being an evidence that you're a true child of God?
Oh my friend, this is what Paul's thanking God for. He says, I
thank God you people are different. God's changed you and made you
a Christian from one end to the other. You're saved all over. And you've experienced the full
ramification of being a child of God. You're experiencing this
thing in your own life. And so you know something about
being a Christian. It's not all just pie in the
sky, bye and bye, brother, sister. It's suffering here in the world. Some people would like the first
part of this verse. For unto you it is given on the
behalf of Christ to believe on him. They like that. But this
suffering for his sake. No, no. Having the same conflict
which you saw in me and now here to be in me. Now Paul had, you
know, he had a great deal of trouble, and I know that you
people listened, as Brother Randy read, so I'm not going to get
into too much of this. But here in the second chapter,
back a little bit before our text, he says in verse 4, 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 trieth our
hearts. For neither at any time use we
flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness God
is witness, nor men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet
of others." And then he goes on to talk about how so being
affectionately desirous, in verse 8, we were willing to have imparted
unto you the gospel, not the gospel of God only, but also
our own souls. For ye remember, brethren, our
labor and travail, for laboring night and day. And so Paul goes
on to explain here what they dealt with and what they were
enduring as they ministered unto these brethren here in the church
of the Thessalonians. And so there's suffering involved
in being a Christian. And there's suffering involved
in being true to the Lord. And so what does this mean? Why
again? Let me just show you this. Number
one, if you're suffering for Christ, as these people were,
it's clear proof that they were preaching the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Clear proof of it. Now, that'd
make a preacher's heart rejoice. Now, you know, I've had a little
experience along the way, and I've been called an antinomian.
I've been called about everything that a man could be called, I
suppose. But certainly, we don't take
these things lightly. But if you haven't gotten around
to being called an antinomian by the religious legalists of
this world, then you are not preaching the gospel. You're
not preaching the gospel. And so it's clear proof that
when these people were suffering, that they were indeed preaching
the gospel. And you might remember that.
If we throw the gospel out the window, and the truths of the
gospel, the truths of redeeming grace, effectual love, if we
throw those things out, Then, of course, nobody would say anything. Everybody would say, oh, you're
just a fine boy. But listen, Jesus said, if they've hated
me, they'll hate you. That's what he said. If they
despise me, they'll despise you. If they hear me, they'll hear
you. And so you see these people were in good company and Paul
said, I spot this and I thank God without ceasing for you. The Bible says in another place,
that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to
the Lord. All that will live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution. It proved they were genuine believers. And so can you not see why Paul
would thank God for them? Well, I hope this morning that
our hearts have been stimulated not only to believe this passage
of Scripture, but to begin to thank God for all that which
we've evidenced and seen in our own lives and in the lives of
others around us. Thank God for it. And another
thing that this clearly reveals to me is that God is to have
the glory for everything. You know, Paul said in 2 Corinthians
5, I believe it's verse 18, he said, All things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. All things are
of God. And what he meant by that was
that everything that has to do with the new creation, Man becoming
a new creature in Christ. He just had said, if any man
be in Christ, he's a new creation. All things have passed away and
all things become new. All things are of God. So brethren,
God gets the glory, does He not? Would we not give Him praise?
Would we not thank Him ceaselessly for what He has done in the lives
of those around us and hopefully in our own lives? Let us pray. Father, we thank you this morning
for your word and for your truth. I do pray a blessing, Lord, to
accompany this message to the hearts of these. And Lord, I
pray that they might grow in the grace and knowledge of the
truth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us not, our Father, to be
in any way turned aside by the afflictions, by the suffering,
by the trials that come our way. Help us to see that these things
accompany those that are in Christ Jesus. Oh, give us grace to follow
our Lord, knowing that you cannot separate our faith from our conduct. Help us to be faithful and to
do that which your word teaches we ought to do. Help us to truly
be the servants of Christ. Paul said, he did not seek to
please men. May we not seek to please men,
but to please our God. Thank you in Jesus' name and
for his sake. Amen.