Well, good morning, everyone. It's always such a joy to be here again, such a joy to sing together in this church. I'm very thankful to be here and to worship together with you always. I bring you greetings from the church in Armstrong, Trinity Reformed Baptist Church up there.
We're very thankful for the relationship that we have with you as a church, for all that you have done for us as a church, and of course, we're always thankful for your prayers as well. And know that we as a church pray for you, for your pastors, and for you here as well. So, thank you very much in our prayers. When I stand in this pulpit, I always feel like the little boy steps into his father's shoes and wonders how he's ever gonna, can feel those shoes.
But interestingly, I heard one of those little video clips on social media, and Pastor Butler said, I've never been alone in this pulpit before. And I pray that the same Lord will be here today, and that therefore you will hear from the Lord today. So with that, let's turn our attention to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians, we're going to be looking at chapter 2 this morning. The first four verses of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.
But as always, we need to understand the context, so we're going to read a little bit longer section from verse 1 of chapter 1 to verse 12 of chapter 2. So I'll begin reading in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 1. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place.
Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we don't need to say anything, for they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. But even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit.
God's Motivation: Entrusted with the Gospel
But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness, God as witness, nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children, so affectionately longing for you. And we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.
For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil, for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. We preach to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe. As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
Amen. Well, let's pray before the preaching of the Word. Our Father in heaven, again, we come before you and we feel our need of you, Lord, and we ask that you would be with us in this day, in this your house, as we are gathered with your people on your day. And Lord, may it be that the dear saints of this flock here would hear from you today as your Word is preached by your Spirit.
Lord, take your Word, bring it to bear upon the hearts of each one here. May it be for the edification of those who are yours here. May it be, Lord, for the salvation of sinners, if there be any here this morning not in Christ. And Lord, above all we ask, may it be for the glory of your most worthy name.
And we pray this in the name of our Savior, your beloved Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Introduction
So at the time that this epistle was written, the Thessalonian church was a very young church, probably at the most about a year and a half old since Paul had been there. You can go to Acts 17, you can find the story there of Paul coming into the city for three Sabbaths, he goes into the synagogue, he reasons with the Jews there, he preaches to them that it was necessary that the Christ, their Messiah, would suffer and then enter his glory. And he says to them, this Jesus whom I preach is the Christ, he is the Messiah. Now, of course, the Jews didn't like that.
So after three weeks, the Jews organized a riot, They descended upon the house of Jason where they thought Paul and his team here, Silvanus and Timothy, were staying. Somehow, we don't know, but they were able to slip away, sneak away. They had to sneak down in the middle of the night to the docks, jump aboard a ship, sail at night across to Berea, the next city. And then from there they moved on to Athens.
Paul is very concerned about the Thessalonians. You really pick that up as you read through this passage here, and especially into chapter 3 as well. He's very concerned about them, because three weeks is not a very long time. To see someone turned from serving idols, as he says in verse 9 of chapter 1, serving idols to serving the true and living God.
Three weeks is not a very long time to to see that change and to have them on the right path. Now, we understand the sovereignty of God, we know that God saves his people, but we also know that prone to wander and prone to leave the God that we love as well. So, Paul is concerned. Are they persevering in the faith?
They probably did not have a pastor yet. Again, this is somewhat speculation, but just to help us understand the concept here. So, Paul is wondering, are they Persevering are they holding to the gospel or have they gone back to serving idols again? He's worried about them now.
He tells us in chapter 2 that he was hindered By Satan verse 18 he was hindered by by Satan somehow From going there himself to go see to them and to go minister to them and encourage them He was not able to go there Himself, but then so then he finds a way that he can send Timothy to go there to strengthen to encourage their souls He says and then Timothy brought back good news that they were persevering and they were rejoicing even in the midst of affliction Just like we read this morning in chapter 1 so they're rejoicing But then so then Paul then writes this letter back to them to Share his thankfulness to the Lord for this but also then to encourage them to press on to keep going to Chapter 4, verse 1, we urge you and exhort you, abound more and more. You know, so Paul wants to continue to see to their perseverance. So that's the context, that's the purpose for this epistle. here, and that's the context and where we find our passage here. And as we read through this, you might have sensed the fact that Paul is sort of going on the defensive almost here, that he's defending himself, his reputation.
Perhaps it seems like maybe someone was speaking ill of him. And he feels the need to defend himself, but that's not how we need to understand this. We need to remember. He's there to encourage them.
Because what's probably happening is what was very common in those days there is that Paul's probably being labeled as just another one of these philosophers, a traveling philosopher that's sort of come through with his new doctrines, new philosophies, new ideas, new ways of life that you should follow, and he's one of those. And that was very common in those days. You remember in the story in Acts 17 when Paul goes to the Areopagus in Athens to discuss with the Greek philosophers there. And actually what happened was Paul encountered them in the marketplace, when he's in the marketplace, and they brought him to the Areopagus and said, come and tell us about this new doctrine that you're speaking of.
They wanted to hear it and listen and think about it. So that was very, very common. Some of these philosophers, you know, perhaps they had genuine concerns about the meaning of life and existence and all of these, you know, deep concepts well enough, but way too often there was just very newfangled ideas that would come up. Someone would come around trying to present their idea, trying to convince others of it, and trying to gain a following, and it was always for their personal benefit of the leader, this person.
They would benefit Somehow, whether it was with power, having a following, whether it was financially or whether it was sexually, those three things generally is where all of those things led. So for the average Greek in those days, these traveling philosophers, they were annoying people. I read a document from a Greek writer named Lucian of Samosata. He's from second century writing about these.
He's not a Christian. He's a pagan. And he calls them quack philosophers or charlatans. And he says this about them.
He says, they prey on people who have neither brains nor individuality, And only the shape of their bodies distinguishes them from sheep." We know people like that, don't we? And then it's sort of interesting. It's a very funny read, actually, to read it. But then he asks all the gods who are in charge of averting disasters to protect him from men like this.
So these types of men were common, these sort of charlatan philosophers. Perhaps what's happening here is that Paul is being lumped into this category. We can imagine, perhaps, that family members are saying to the Thessalonians, you know, we think you've been had. We think you've been had by another one of these guys.
You know, your life has radically changed, and you've done all these things, and we think you've been had. And so Paul's writing here, then, so that their faith is not shaken. He wants to distance himself from these philosophers, but to do so by highlighting his message. The message that he brought was not a message at all like what the other, you know, quack philosophers, if we want to use that term, charlatans, were bringing.
Rather, he wants to instill confidence, then, in them. So that's what we have in this passage here. And he, in the first part here, verse 1 and 2, he reminds them of the adversity that he had to endure in order to bring this message to them. that he wasn't benefiting here at all. He was actually sacrificing a lot to bring this message.
And then in verse 3, we get into the character of the message. And then verse 4, his motivation for bringing that message to them.
The Gospel Paul Preached Was Not Empty
So verse 1, here, you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. So again, well, I think when he says in coming in vain, I think he's referring to the content of his message. I know my outline doesn't, you know, exactly reflect that perfectly, but the content of his message is not, he's not coming in vain. He's not coming, peddling some sort of vain philosophy, some sort of empty philosophy, a non-consequential, take it or leave it kind of philosophy.
You think of in those days, you think of the Stoics. That was some of the philosophers that Paul reasoned with in Athens. They were the Stoics. And Stoic philosophy said that you needed to live in perfect harmony with logic and with reason.
And emotion, emotion is what caused you to make choices and decisions and reactions that could be irrational. So therefore you had to avoid all emotion. That's a take it or leave it philosophy. If I decide that I want to laugh or I want to cry or I want to be scared or be annoyed and possibly make an irrational decision because of that, I love my wife and I might spend too much money on her Christmas present.
That's pretty non-consequential. That's a kind of a take it or leave it philosophy. But Paul says, my message is not in vain. My message is not empty.
It's not a take it or leave it message. If you reject the gospel, you reject it to your peril. The gospel says when you reject the gospel, you're rejecting the God of the gospel, and the God of the gospel is your creator, the creator of all things. So Paul's message implicates everyone, and that's the reality of it.
That's why the gospel causes so much opposition. because it strikes a nerve in the hearts of all men. We all have the law of God written on our hearts. We all recognize the reality that there's a creator out there, a God, to whom we have to do, to whom we have to answer for. And the gospel strikes that nerve.
And that's why Paul faced so much opposition because of the content of his gospel. It was not a take it or leave it type of message.
Adversity Proved Paul's Sincerity
Verse 2, the opposition here, even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. So you know the story of what happened at Philippi, the Philippian jailer, we often refer to it that way. The story there, they were stripped of their clothes, they were beaten with rods, they were thrown into the stalks in the inner prison. Not a nice place to be by any stretch.
But this didn't dissuade Paul and Barnabas from pressing on, boldly proclaiming that message in the face of opposition, in the face of conflict, as they come into Thessalonica and face that same opposition there. So again, you see what Paul's doing here. He's trying to tell these Thessalonians, I'm not a charlatan. I'm not here for myself.
He wants to encourage them. And get them thinking, would he really continue preaching that gospel given the suffering that he was encountering and the opposition he was facing as he brought this gospel? Would he really do that if he was just in here to benefit himself? He wants to remove that any doubt. from their minds.
You can't imagine a stoic philosopher being ready to go to jail and die for his message that you shouldn't laugh or love or be sad. So there's something different about Paul's message. He's not in it for himself. So again, as we see here, the false teachers These charlatans, these quack philosophers, they're always in it for themselves, and there's nothing new under the sun.
We still have that in our day and age as well. Those in the church, those outside of the church, you know, the Thessalonians would have been familiar with the latter. Those outside of the church, we might be more familiar with the former. Those in the church who claim to be Christian, who go around and seeking to find, to gain a following, but they're in it for themselves to feed that same, the lust for power, the lust for money, the lust for women.
You know, you can pick any cult, you can pick any strange movement within Orthodox Christians, or I shouldn't say Orthodox, Evangelical Christianity, and you can see the leaders, their lives are riddled with these things. Just Joseph Smith, James and Ellen White, Charles Taze Russell, you know, Rulon Jeffs, the name goes on. You know, it's sad, but that's the reality of it, being in it for themselves. But the point is here, then, is that Paul is not in it for himself.
He's making it very clear to us. He's here bringing a gospel that cost him, and he's delivering the gospel message And the way that he is delivering it reflects the message itself, reflects the content of that message. Because the gospel says someone else suffered so that you can benefit. And that's what Paul wants them to see.
Paul's living out that ministry. He's practicing what he's preaching, we might say. He came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life. Be willing to suffer. not as an atonement for sin, that's not where I'm going, but you see the parallels, willing to suffer.
And he pressed on, he says here, he pressed on boldly, continues to preach that he was bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God. The gospel of God. We might better understand it in our common language now, God's gospel. This is God's gospel that he's bringing.
Not his message, God's message that he's bringing to the people. We'll come back to that shortly, that concept. But I want to look at first then the character of the message itself.
Character of the Message
Our exhortation, this is verse 3, our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit. So error here means to mislead, to cause, to intentionally cause to stray from the truth.
The Gospel Is Not Error
Paul's message is not, and the gospel, is not a message that calls us to believe something mystical, something unexplainable, To follow, to make this blind leap of faith, so to speak, away from truth. In Paul's own words, the gospel is the words of truth and reason. Paul's not asking anyone to believe absurd claims. Things that don't make sense to the human mind.
Mystic, mysticism. He's not asking that. And that's the reality of it, the Christian message, the Christian gospel. When we preach the gospel, we're not asking you to lay aside your intellect and to take a blind leap of faith and believe something that's utter nonsense.
We're not asking you to look for some sort of mystical feelings and mystical burning in the bosom or something strange that you can't explain. The gospel are the words of truth and reason. You don't need to lay aside your intellect to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to lay aside your rebellion.
And that's, if you're here this morning, that's, and not a believer of this gospel, have not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ that this gospel reveals to us. Maybe you've believed the world's lie that the world says you can either believe in science and and and logic or you can believe in God you can't have the two they don't mix that's a lie from from the world I recently just listened to a podcast and the the two were were talking about Jordan Peterson and And the one guy being interviewed was a Christian, and he says, you know, Peterson frustrates me because he comes up to the line, and he doesn't cross that line. I think we probably, whoever listens has that same frustration. And the host said, why is that?
Is that because of a life of academia? That was his instant, that's where he went. Peterson was too smart to believe the gospel. That's not what it is.
That's the biggest lie out there. that you need to lay aside your intellect, you need to leave truth and logic behind when you believe the gospel. Maybe you're a skeptic here this morning, and you're trying, what is this gospel about? Is God really real? And, you know, all of these things.
Examine it. Study it. The gospel does not lead you away from truth. It leads you to truth.
It brings you to the truth, but it does require that you lay aside your rebellion against this God, against this one who you are at enmity with, that you acknowledge that you've sinned against him. You repent of that sin, you understand that you have sinned. You've broken his law and you're liable of the punishment for that law, which is death. The wages of sin is death.
So we're not asking to put aside your intellect Your hold-up is an ethical one, it's not an intellectual one. So repent, believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says here, Paul then says that his message did not come from uncleanness either.
The Gospel Is Not Unclean
Generally this is a reference to sexual impurity. Paul was not selling a message that catered to those lusts. He didn't say, believe my message and join my club and follow me and you can have as many wives as you want, or you can, you know, join my following and one day you'll get your own world that you can be king of with all, as many wives as you want. Neither did he use his authority to lure women and girls, you know, and to seduce them, the ones who had believed his lies.
He calls all men men and women, all men, everywhere, to repent. The message was the same for everyone. The message was... And Paul did not use that message to exploit anyone in these unclean ways.
The Gospel Is Not Deceit
And then his message was not in deceit. Deceit is to defraud someone. Paul's not asking for things from his followers. He's not asking for money. in exchange for something.
He's not instilling some sort of fear. The Lucian, the Greek writer that I mentioned earlier, said, all men live by two principles, the principles of fear and of hope. And he says these quack philosophers play on that. On fear, they instill some sort of fear, and then they offer hope, but they expect payment so that you can have that, so that he can give you that hope.
And that's not what Paul was like here at all. Paul was not peddling the word of God, as he said to the Corinthians. He's not selling them some hope. He's not giving them the false hope of prosperity in this life.
Believe or follow, give to my ministry. Take out your checkbooks right now and give to it. Give to my ministry and God's gonna reward you with all these riches, offering some sort of financial hope to his hearers in exchange for them to give all their money to his ministry. which is the unfortunate reality in this day and age of the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. It's shocking sometimes when you go and you listen, you find clips online of these men that will literally do that from their stage that they're on.
Take out your checkbooks right now. Do you want $10,000 in your bank account? Give $1,000 right now and God will put $10,000 in your bank account. It's terrible.
It's terrible. Paul's distancing himself from that. He's not asking for money. He's not asking for power.
He's not asking for women. So now, so when the Thessalonians, when their family members come to them and they say, my son, brother, whoever it is, and we think you've been had. Please don't tell me you've emptied your bank account for this charlatan.
The Free Offer Costs the Hearer Nothing
They could respond with confidence. And they could say, no, it didn't cost me anything. It cost me nothing to believe this gospel and to follow this man who says, follow me or imitate me as I imitate Christ. Paul's offering to them something free.
That free offer of the gospel. which is the gift of eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus. That's what Paul's offering, the gift of eternal life. It's free. And this is, and Paul can offer this gospel because it's, or this gift, because it's not his gospel.
That's what he says in verse 2 here. We were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God, or God's gospel, in much conflict. That's what this gospel is. It's not something that Paul had come up with, not something that he came up with so that he could benefit somehow, but rather he has been appointed by God to take God's message and bring it to the ends of the earth.
This is God's message, not his. That's verse four, his motivation. But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. So God had a message for the people, for His image bearers whom He had created.
God has a message for them. God needs a mouth, but God doesn't need anything. But God needed a mouthpiece, as it were, to bring that message. And therefore, God examines or tests their hearts.
It says here, we've been approved by God And then the last line, God who tests our hearts, same word used both times. We've been approved by God or we've been examined, we've been tested by God as fit for this office, fit to be the ones to take this message and bring it to the people. Now we have to realize God's also the one who made them fit for office as well. We can't forget that either.
God is the one who has equipped them and has qualified them So that when he examines them, they are fit for this office. We don't want to forget that. Now, one thing we should point out as well is, how are these men appointed by God? Or brought into this, given this stewardship from God to this office?
Paul was an apostle. He was appointed directly by the Lord Jesus. as an apostle. But then after that, Silas and Timothy, they were both chosen by the church through careful, prayerful consideration of this and the laying on of hands by the elders or by the apostles. And again, we can't miss that here.
We can't stress that enough when it comes to the appointment of elders in the church. The qualifications for elders that God has given the church to follow, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, elsewhere, 1 Peter, those qualifications clearly forbid anyone who's driven by lust for money. They cannot be greedy for money. Driven by lust for women, they have to be a one-woman man, or driven by a lust for power, not being lords over those entrusted to them, as Peter tells us in 1 Peter.
So, the means that God uses to entrust or to test hearts and put men into this office is the church carefully considering this, carefully going through this process. It's God's way. And this is how God ensures that we ought to be doing this so that God, because it's God's way to ensure that men do not get into office who will use the gospel for personal gain, to satisfy those personal lusts. So these men then are entrusted, God has entrusted men with his gospel as a stewardship to take this message and to bring it to the people.
Preachers as Ambassadors of God
Paul tells us elsewhere that he is an ambassador for God. or ambassador for God, Ephesians 6, 2 Corinthians 5. And in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20, he says, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. That's an amazing statement when you think of that.
When you remove that middleman and you see him simply as only the mouthpiece, so to speak, of God. And when he is imploring you to be reconciled to God, this is God's gospel. God's message. This is God calling sinners to be reconciled to Him through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So when you hear from the pulpit, whether it's now or whether it's weekly, Pastor Butler or Pastor Porter, when you hear the call of the gospel to repent and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's not Pastor Butler, that's not Pastor Kim, that's not me, whoever the preacher is, calling you to believe. It's God. calling you to repent, to believe, and to receive the gift of eternal life. It's not our message. It's not the pastor's message.
It's God. God saying, come unto me. And that's not just for the gospel call itself. That goes for all the Word of God.
As the Word of God, the Bible is preached when the Spirit attends to the preaching of the Word and the Word is delivered to the people. It's not the pastor giving his ideas and Whatever, if he needs to be true to the text and preach the text, then it is God speaking to you. And you are hearing from the Lord on the Lord's day through the preaching of the word. Now that's humbling and a terrifying thought for the pastor, but we know we're not alone in it, thankfully.
But for the hearer as well. It's such an important reminder that we need to take seriously the preaching of the Word of God. God is speaking to you. God is giving you His Word through an ambassador, through someone whom He has entrusted this task to.
But it's God's message. And therefore, Paul says, even so then we speak. So he preaches that word in the face of opposition, whatever it may be. He's speaking the word because it's not his word.
It's the word of the Lord for the people. He's delivering, he's simply delivering God's message to the people. He's not in it for himself. He's not in it to satisfy his own lusts, to satisfy others' lusts.
He's delivering that message that has been entrusted to him from God. Because he knows that's what will please God. He's doing it to please God. Think of the stewards, the parable of the stewards, for example, that Jesus used.
All the servants were given talents from the master, each according to their own ability. And those servants had to go and had to take those talents and use it to bring a return for the master. And that's how Paul sees his calling here. He has been given the gospel, the gospel from God to him, and he then needs to deliver that, to preach that, to proclaim it. so that he might bring forth much fruit.
So that when, to use the language of the parable, when the master has gone to a far, far country, and he comes back, and the servant is excited. to present to him, and he says, look, Lord, you've given me five talents, and here's five more. And the other one says, you gave me two, and here's two more. That's what Paul wants from these Thessalonians. That's why he's so concerned to see to their perseverance, because he wants to be able to present them.
That's at the end of the chapter, verse 19, or verse 17 through 19 and 20, where he gets into that more, but he wants to present them as those whom, as fruits of his work. He's been striving for the master. He's been preaching that gospel. He's been teaching them.
He wants to go back there so badly to see to their perseverance because he wants to present them with joy and say, look, Lord, the fruits of what you entrusted to me. So he's not there to please himself. And his message came at no cost to the listener. So Paul's not another traveling philosopher.
His message is the opposite. His message didn't benefit him, and it did not cost them. So who benefits from God's message, from God's gospel? It's not Paul, it cost Paul dearly.
Paul speaking as the ambassador of this message. It did not benefit him, it cost him. You can read that list in 2 Corinthians. of what he endured to bring that gospel. Five times receiving 40 stripes, save one from the Jews.
Three times beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked, perils of robbers, perils of Gentiles, perils of false teachers, and he goes on. He suffered a lot to bring this message. Paul's not the one benefiting. God's not the one benefiting.
Even though it's God's message, God does not benefit. Now this is where we have to think of who our God is. The creature-creator relationship is not a symbiotic relationship. It's not like the clownfish and the anemone and they both mutually benefit somehow.
Both parties benefiting in that symbiotic relationship. That's not what happens here. God is not benefiting. God is the perfection of being.
He can't become better than he is. He's infinite perfection of joy and blessedness in and of himself. Who's benefiting in this message, by this message? It's the hearer.
It's the people, those who believe. The one who hears and believes the gospel. Sinners who hear The gospel who, and by God's grace, repent and believe in this Savior who suffered and entered glory so that they too can enter glory and have the gift of eternal life. Those are the ones who benefit.
We benefit. We receive every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
The Cost Fell on Christ Alone
Now, in a sense, we could say, very carefully, it comes at no cost to us. We can say it cost God. Because the Gospel message is the message that God, the Triune God, the second person of that Trinity, the Word, the Word became flesh. and dwelt among us. The second person of the Trinity assumed to himself a human nature, and according to that human nature, it cost him.
It cost him everything. Though he was rich, yet he became poor for our sakes, that through his poverty we might become rich. He took to himself a human nature so that he might submit to the will of the Father, so that he might die so that we might have life and have it abundantly, eternal life through Him. He was cursed so that we can be blessed.
He was cursed because we deserved to be cursed, but He took that upon Himself instead so that we can be blessed. The gospel costs us nothing. to receive that forgiveness of sin and the gift of eternal life. It costs us nothing. It cost Him.
He paid for it. We don't need to give our money to the church or to the ministry of whoever it is in order to receive the blessing. We don't need to live a certain way in order to be saved. God is offering the gift of eternal life.
The message comes through men who he has entrusted this gospel message. It doesn't cost us. By faith, we receive this gift of eternal life, the forgiveness of sins. It costs Christ.
It doesn't cost us. Now, there may be cost to us after the fact. It costs us our old way of life. We may suffer persecution, and it may cost us in that sense.
Jesus says, count the costs. But we have to remember, the cost comes after the fact. Those costs are not admission into the kingdom of God. Those costs are, once you've been in, there may be suffering, there may be affliction, there may be a slight temporal cost after the fact, but it costs you nothing to receive this gospel.
There's no cost of admission into the kingdom of heaven and to receive eternal and enjoy eternal life. There's nothing that we need to present to God to receive this blessing, this gift. So we have nothing to lose and we have everything to gain. Glory, bliss. beyond our understanding.
The gift of eternal life, if we just stop and think about what that is, to be in the presence of God, to enjoy His goodness in His immediate presence forever, no sin, no sorrow, no tears, all the things that Revelation tells us, no curse. The joy unspeakable, full of glory. That's what the gift offers, what the gospel offers. That's the gift of eternal life.
We have nothing to lose. It costs us nothing. Nothing we need to offer to receive this.
False Gospels Exposed
Any gospel, any so-called gospel that requires you to give of something first before you can receive this gift, is a false gospel, whether it's money, whether it's a certain amount of good works, a certain amount of cleaning up your life first, a certain amount of obedience to the law, an experience, something mystical to present to God. That's a false gospel. It costs you nothing. The gospel is free.
Application: Come to the Free Gospel
The true gospel says, oh, everyone who thirsts, come. Come to the waters. You have no money. Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money, without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread? Why do you want to buy something that's vain, that's empty? You want to try and do something for that.
Why would you do that? Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what will never satisfy? He says, listen carefully to me. Eat what is good, that your soul delight itself in abundance.
Eternal life with God, abundance. Incline your ear. Come to me, listen here, and your soul shall live. That's the gospel message.
That's God's message for you today. If you are not a believer, it's not me telling you this, it's the Lord. As Paul says, pleading, as though God were pleading through us, come, believe this message, believe, receive this gift that he offers you. He will turn no one away.
The one who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. You don't have to worry that if you believe on the Lord Jesus that somehow this wasn't for you, somehow, and the day you die and he'll say, no, that was wrong, you didn't, no. He offers it freely, freely to everyone. It doesn't come in error.
We're not asking you to believe something absurd. It doesn't come in uncleanness. It doesn't come in deceit. It's not here to defraud you of something.
The gospel says you can have everything and it costs you nothing. That's the true gospel. And that's truly good news. And that is why, that's our encouragement to persevere.
For those of us who believe by God's grace and believe this message, and we're walking by faith, we persevere in that. We have everything to gain at the end of this journey. Yes, there's a cost now, like I said, after we've been saved. We may suffer.
We may face trials and opposition and the hindrances of Satan, just like Paul. but press on. We have received the greatest gift, and it came at no cost. Let's never lose sight of that, of the wonder of the gospel. We have to remind ourselves of this daily.
It costs us nothing. When we go out and we live our lives and we fall into sin and we say, Lord, I did it again, we don't have to present something in order to fix that. We repent. We know that when we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We don't need to earn his favor somehow. We don't need to present something to him and say, oh, I did really good today. Look, Lord, now. Now I have your favor on the days when we fail and we sin again and we think, oh, I've lost his favor because I haven't been able to give him the good works like I should.
It doesn't work that way, it's free. You are accepted in the beloved when you believe in him. His beloved son, two times from heaven, he spoke audibly and he said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Beloved, his beloved son.
And we are accepted in that Beloved One. Not because we've had to give something of ourselves for Him. That doesn't mean we live our lives how we want. We go on sinning.
You know that. We're here to present good fruits to God ourselves, just like Paul was so concerned about this. He wants the Thessalonians to do that as well, to go on to live lives that where they too can say, like the steward, Look, Lord, you gave me these different gifts, talents, circumstances, desires, and I use them for your glory here, Lord, for you. He wants that from us.
He wants us to live lives. Paul wants us to follow him because he's following Christ. But it's not so that we might be saved. Let's never forget the freeness of the gospel.
We've been given a gift. by our Creator, the gift of eternal life. I'll close with Psalm 68, verse 19. Blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation. Let's close in prayer.
Closing Prayer
Oh Lord, we are so thankful for your word that you have given us. Lord, we are so thankful for that word who became flesh and dwelt among us. That word who came down from heaven to do the will of his father. And that of all that he had given to him, that he might save them all, Lord. and bring them and raise them up so that they might have everlasting life.
Lord, I pray that this message would encourage your people here as we are reminded again of your goodness to us and that we have the gift of eternal life in store for us. The fullness of joy in your presence. Lord, may we run that race with endurance knowing of the hope of glory that is there for us. And Lord, may we never lose sight of your goodness to us through the free offer of the gospel through your Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, may sinners here, may the light dawn in their hearts. May they see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and may they run to him in repentance and faith and receive that gift as well. Lord, may you be glorified, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, we're gonna sing in closing hymn number 564. 564, let's stand as we sing that together, please. ♪ Over all the God of Israel ♪ ♪ Who only do it wondrous works ♪ ♪ In glory that excels ♪ ♪ Who only do it wondrous works ♪ ♪ In glory that excels ♪ ♪ And blessed be his glorious name to all eternity ♪ ♪ The whole earth let his glory fill, all men surrender to him ♪ All right, you can be seated for a brief time of meditation on that, and after the piano's done, you're dismissed.