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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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.