I want to once again encourage
all of us to pray for one another, especially for those who are
sick. I mentioned this morning a rescue
mission, and I think about Roger Waybright, who has always ministered
at a rescue mission, one that he went to, and ever since he
became part of our church, he has been able to go there. And
then COVID came along. And of course, they closed down
the mission. And then he has been sick. And
I know that we pray for one another, I would encourage us to continue
to remember him and prayer that God might raise him up and he
might be able once again to go and, and preach the gospel there
in that place. and others of our church family
as well we think of tonight. Now let's turn, if you will,
to 1 Thessalonians 2. We looked last Sunday evening
at the first 12 verses in this chapter. Tonight we want to finish
this chapter beginning with verse 13. 1 Thessalonians chapter two. In preparing the message last
week and again tonight, I've been impressed with the knowledge
that we are given here in this chapter about the Apostle Paul
himself and about how a man called to preach should conduct himself. And I want to give us five takeaways
from the first 12 verses that are listed in Albert Barnes'
commentary on this epistle. But first of all, and I'm reducing
these downs to one line almost, but first of all, ministers of
the gospel should be entirely sincere and without guile. And that's so important. A man
who stands up to preach, he should be entirely sincere and without
guile. And we learned that here from
the apostles' words. Number two, ministers should
not make it a point to please people, nor should they make
it a point to displease people. I thought that was very good.
We don't try to displease people, and we don't try to please people.
We preach the gospel, and some are pleased and some are not
pleased. That's God's business, not the preacher's. Number three,
ministers should be gentle, tender, and affectionate. And we see
that in the Apostle Paul, as he said that he was among them
as a mother, as a nurse, a nursing mother, as she is so tender with
her infant child. And number four, ministers should
be willing to labor in any proper calling. And we have the highest
respect, I do, for men who pastor churches which are financially
not able to support them. And they work on a job. And any minister should be willing
to labor in a proper calling. And most preachers that I know,
when they first start off, they're willing to pay the people to
come and listen to them. I mean, they just have that desire
to preach. I know I did. And the last thing
he mentioned, ministers should be able to appeal to the people
among whom he has labored that he is an honest man, an honest
man. Now, let's begin with verse 13.
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because
when you received the word of God which you heard of us, you
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. Notice that word also. For this
cause also thank we God. In the first chapter, he thanked
the Lord, of course, for their election of God. He gave thanks
unto the Lord. He didn't thank the people that
they had chosen God, but he thanked God that he had chosen them. And then also he thanked the
Lord for their effectual calling, that they had been called by
the gospel. But we notice here, he says,
we thank For this cause also thank we God without ceasing. He continually gave thanks unto
the Lord for this that he mentions now. And it is important, very
important for us to see what it is he mentions here in this
place that he thanked God for. And it is that they heard the
word of God, that is the gospel, they heard it from the lips of
the apostle Paul, but they received it not as the word of man, but
as it is the word of God. Now think about this, he came
to Thessalonica, they didn't know him from Adam. And Silas
was with him, and Timothy was with him, He began to preach
and they received his words that he spoke as it is in truth the
word of God. Have you ever tried to witness
to someone, to speak to someone about Christ and they, you mentioned
the word of God, the Bible, it doesn't mean anything to them.
Well, that's just a book. That's just a book written by
men. A book of philosophy, if you
please, some people think. And I would imagine most of us
here in this room tonight, we grew up believing that the Bible,
at least hearing and giving mental assent to the truth, that the
Bible is the word of God. But these people, as he said,
when he preached, when Paul preached, they received his words, the
words spoken by man, as it is in truth, the word of God, the
word of God. What a blessing tonight, if you
tonight, by the grace of God, are able to hear a man like myself,
open up the Word of God, read the Word of God, and you believe
that, yes, that is the Word of God. That's not just the words
of men, that is the Word of God. That's an amazing thing, an amazing
fact. There are millions of people
in this world who you could read the Word of God to and they would
not receive it or think of it as the Word of God. Now Paul
told the church at Corinth that he was among them with much fear
and trembling. That's the way he was when he
went to Corinth. Now he made it to Corinth after
He leaves Thessalonica, he goes to Berea, he has to leave there,
he goes to Athens, he leaves there, he goes to Corinth. And
when he writes that first letter back to them, he reminds them
of his demeanor when he was among them. He said, I was among you
in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. I think sometimes people get
the idea that Paul was some great orator. He didn't see himself
like that, and he's presented to us in the Word of God as not
a man like that. He was a man, and he said he
did not use enticing words. He told that to the Corinthians.
He did not use enticing words of man's wisdom. Why? He did that on purpose. When
you read very much, you realize that Paul was recognized as one
of the greatest minds in the Western world at that time. He
had great knowledge. Remember when he stood before
one of those men, one of those kings, when he was being taken
to Rome, they said, Paul, much learning hath made thee mad. He was a man of great learning.
He quotes in several places poets. He was a man of great learning,
but his preaching was in simplicity. And by simplicity, he meant singleness. I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And he was desirous
that those who believed that their faith was not produced
by anything that he could do by his speech or anything like
that, but their faith stood in the power of God. You see, if
Paul could come into town and go into a synagogue and he could
convince some people this way, and if it was just Paul with
his learning and his oratorical skills and things like that,
and someone else could come two weeks later into town and convince
them by their skill just the opposite. Oh, but when the gospel
is preached in the power of God the Holy Spirit and God speaks, nobody's going to unconvince
a person who experiences that in their You know, that's not
going to happen. God works effectually with his
word. And we just need to always be
reminded of this, this precious book, the word of God that he
has given us. This is what God has chosen to
use in calling his people. You know, there's a verse in
Psalm 138 in verse two, and it's truly amazing. It's truly amazing
when you read this verse. Thou, that is the psalmist says
thou, speaking to God. Thou hast magnified thy word. Here it is. Thou hast magnified
thy word above all thy name. That's amazing, isn't it? It
really is to me. God has chosen to use his word
in calling out his people. And you know in Psalm 12, the
psalmist says this about the words of the Lord. He says, the
words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace
of earth, purified seven times. In other words, man would put
his silver in a container and heat that thing up to a certain
degree, and then he'd take off the the impurity that had bubbled
up to the top. And he'd do that a second time
and a third time. And it says seven times, which
is a number which means completeness in the word of God. The word
of God is pure, the pure word of God. No wonder he wrote to
Timothy and he said, Timothy, preach the word. Preach the word,
be instant in season and out of season. Preach the word, the
word of God. That's what we do, isn't it?
We come here to hear the word of God. Verse 14, 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."
The church at Thessalonica, to whom he's writing these words,
they became, he said, followers of the churches of God which
were in Judea. Remember, our Lord said, you
shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and
unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Thessalonica would be
in that uttermost part of the earth. And they became followers
of the churches that had been established in Judea. There was
a church in Jerusalem, of course, but there were churches also
in the area surrounding Jerusalem, Judea. And this is important
to see because this church that Paul is writing to It's on the
same level. In other words, there's not a
hierarchy among churches. There's not a national church,
as some nations, you know, like England, the Church of England.
And all the churches throughout the land are part of the same
one church, they call it. But no, there's churches in the
world that God raises up and He tells this church, you became
followers of those churches. Now, when I think of them being
followers, that means to me they were like them in doctrine. They
believed the same thing that the churches in Judea believed. They believed and there's one
God who exists in a trinity of persons. They believed in God's
sovereign grace. The gospel of God's grace, believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ is both God and man and one person,
that he's the one mediator between God and man. We could go through
these things. They followed them in doctrine and in practice,
no doubt, in practice as well. And they conducted their services
just as we do today. Or I should say, we conduct our
services just as they did. That is, we meet together for
prayer, for singing of hymns, and for the study, the teaching,
and preaching of the word of God. Now that's true, but Paul
is pointing out something to them, something a little bit
different, when he says, this church was like the churches
in Judea. You, he said, you have suffered
persecution from your countrymen, just like those in Judea suffered
persecution from their countrymen, who were Jews, who were Jews. And we know from the book of
Acts, when you read about Paul coming to Thessalonica and his
time there, you realize it was the Jews who stirred up the people
of Thessalonica against him. And not only against him, but
those who believed the gospel he preached. And when he went
to Berea, when he left Thessalonica, he went to Berea, and the Jews
came there from Thessalonica and stirred up the people against
Paul. Verse 15. Who, that is the Jews,
who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have
persecuted us, and they please not God, and are contrary to
all men. Now we know, when we think about
the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, it was purposed by God
as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But humanly speaking,
his crucifixion was instigated by the Jews. They're the ones
who insisted. Remember, they're the ones who
arrested him. They're the ones who brought
him before Pilate and told Pilate, we have a law and by our law,
he's worthy of death. And when Pilate did his best
or tried to do his best to release the Lord Jesus Christ, they told
him, said, no, if you release him, you're not a friend of Caesar.
And they're the ones, the Jews, who cried out, crucify him, crucify
him. And on the day of Pentecost,
you remember, Peter was preaching to Jews, and he said that they
had by their wicked hands taken him and crucified him. Their history, notice what Paul
reminds them of their history as a people. was to kill the
prophets. Look at that verse again, verse
15. Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets. They had a history. Man called
of God came there preaching and prophesying, which is preaching. And they didn't like his message,
they said, prophesy unto us smooth things. Smooth things. That's the things we like to
hear. Things that go down easy. Smooth. And so God's messengers
didn't always prophesy smooth things because of the way they
lived. Their lives. And what did they
do? They killed the prophets. They
didn't like the message, so they killed the messenger. Our Lord said that in Matthew
23. He said, you be witnesses unto
yourselves that you are the children of them which kill the prophets. Remember the parable our Lord
gave of the vineyard, the man that had a vineyard and he had
workers in his vineyard. And I'm paraphrasing, but you
remember he sent his servants to receive the the produce of
his vineyard, and what did they do? They stoned some of them,
threw them out of the vineyard. And last of all, our Lord told
this parable, didn't he? This man sends his own son, and
he said, they'll reverence my son. But what did they say? Here's the heir. When we get
rid of him, this vineyard's going to be ours. He's talking about
the Jewish leaders, right? And that's what Paul says here,
who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets. They
had a history. This was their history. Stephen,
when he was preaching, he said, you do always resist the Holy
Spirit. Always resist. And the way they
resisted was by stoning and destroying those who brought a message they
didn't like to hear. Now, verse 16, he says, they
forbidding us, that is the Jews, forbidding us to speak to the
Gentiles that they might be saved. To fill up their sins always,
for the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. Wrath has come upon them to the
uttermost. Once again, here in this passage,
we see God's ordinary way, His ordinary means, I should say,
of saving sinners. How does God ordinarily save
sinners? How does He ordinarily call men? Through preaching, using His
word. I know the Holy Spirit must quicken
a person, must give life, but As one of the old Puritans says,
the Holy Spirit usually comes riding in the chariot of the
Word of God. Preach the Word, and God uses
His Word. But these, Paul said, they forbid
us to preach to the Gentiles that they might be saved. Did
you know there was a time when they even forbid explaining the
law to a Gentile? If a Gentile desired to know
what is that law that you have, the law of Moses, what does it
say? They were forbidden to even try to explain the law to a Gentile. How did they refer to Gentiles?
And by Gentiles, I mean every nationality that wasn't Jewish. Dogs, dogs. That's the way they looked upon
all other nationalities. They were the favored people.
They were the chosen people. They were God's people. They
were Abraham's children. They had Moses and the law. They saw themselves as above
everyone else. Had such a prejudice against
the Gentiles. And when it came to preaching
the gospel to them, we see this in the New Testament. Yes, you
can believe the gospel, but you must become a Jew. You must become,
that's the whole point of the letter of Galatians, isn't it?
Yes, you believe and you're saved by faith, but you've got to be
circumcised and you've got to take the law and really become
a Jew like us. That's what they meant about
it in Acts chapter 15. I love the way Peter answered that.
We believe that they shall be saved even as us. How is that? By grace. By grace,
not by the law. Notice Paul's words here, to
fill up their sins always. Verse 16. to fill up their sins
always. I made reference to this in the
message last Wednesday evening, I believe. When we see in the
scriptures, it seems that people and nations, there's a limit. There's a limit. It's like a
cup. And once that cup is filled,
God's wrath is poured out. And this is the nation of Israel. They're right on the verge, when
Paul wrote this letter, they're right on the verge of the Roman
army coming and destroying Jerusalem, their temple, and scattering
them throughout the world. They've filled up, as he says
here, filled up their sins always, for the wrath is come upon them
to the uttermost. In fact, our Lord said it would
be a time like no other time, a time of suffering. And that's
what they experienced there in AD 70 in Jerusalem. Verse 17,
but we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in
presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your
face with great desire. Now, I've read that Paul uses
a word, he uses a term here in this verse, which the writers
say it implies much more than we see here in our translation,
here in our English translation. When he says being taken from
you, it carries the idea of a painful separation, like a child when
Its parents are taken away, a painful separation. And Paul's leaving
them. That's what he's saying. It was
painful on my part to leave you, to leave Thessalonica. And when he did, he said in this
verse, he said, I thought it would be for just a short time.
When he was convinced to leave Thessalonica for his safety,
it was a painful separation, he said, to leave you young believers,
this church. And in my mind, I thought it
would be just a very short time. But as you and I know, man proposes,
but God disposes. And what Paul thought would be
for just a short time turns out to be a very long time. But understand this, Paul says,
that in my heart, I'm still with you. I'm not with you there in
body. But in my heart, my heart is
still with you. And my absence is not owing.
It's not because I do not desire to be with you. That's not it
at all. In fact, he said, I've made every
endeavor to come back to you. But notice verse 18, wherefore
we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again. But Satan hindered us. He doesn't tell us how Satan
hindered him. But we know that Satan does all
he can to keep men from hearing the gospel, from hearing the
word of God. Someone mentioned something the
other day, Sunday-itis. Sunday-itis. And some of you
have never heard of that, but we used to hear that years ago
in church that we were part of. The pastor would talk about some
people get Sunday-itis. You know, they can get up every
day of the week and go to work, and on Saturday take care of
their errands, but on Sunday they get up with just a little
headache or a little something, you know? Sunday-itis. Just enough. Maybe I better not go today.
Maybe I better just stay home, get ready for work for tomorrow. And Satan does, he uses everything
that he can to keep people from hearing the word of God, to hinder
people in hearing the word of God. But Paul knew, and you and
I know, that it was God's will for him not to come. God, Satan
hinders, there's no question about that, but While Satan can
hinder you and he can hinder me, he can't hinder God. God's
will, God's purpose is going to be done. And no doubt, Paul,
God's purpose was that Paul go on to these other places where
he went to preach the gospel there. Now in conclusion, verses
19 and 20, for what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? are not even you in the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ and His coming, for you are our glory
and joy. Two things I want to say. First
of all, nothing gives a preacher more joy than to know that God
has used him in some way for the good of God's people. Nothing gives a pastor more joy
than hearing and knowing that And the second thing, don't we
see here that we will recognize one another? Paul was convinced
that he, when the Lord came again, he would know these people. He
said, you're my joy and glory. Well, if he didn't know who they
were, how could he say that? And that's a question, you know,
sometimes we're asked, will we know one another in heaven? And
I like to answer, Brother Mahan always gave to that, we'll know
more then than we know now. Sure we'll know one another.
We know each other now, we're gonna know each other then. What
a day of rejoicing that will be. Amen? I'm gonna ask the men
now if you will come and we're going to observe our Lord's command
to eat this bread and drink this cup